Packer Central

Powerful Statement at Entry to Packers’ ‘Beautiful’ New Locker Room

Locker rooms don’t win Super Bowls. That championship goal was made abundantly clear just outside the door to the Packers’ glitzy new locker room.
Bill Huber|
Here is a look inside the new Packers locker room at Lambeau Field.
Here is a look inside the new Packers locker room at Lambeau Field. | Photo courtesy Green Bay Packers

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ players knew they were getting a new locker room. The great reveal came at the start of training camp.

“They wanted us to all walk in together and see it for the first time,” quarterback Jordan Love said at the conclusion of the first practice on Wednesday. “I mean, it’s beautiful.”

There was nothing truly wrong with the old locker room. In the NFLPA’s annual survey of working conditions, as voted on by the players, it ranked 12th out of 32 teams with a “B” grade.

Other than the football shape that remains, nothing about the new room is recognizable by comparison. While more lockers have been squeezed into the room, meaning a bit less personal space, there are chairs and back rests rather than wooden seats at each locker. Rather than old-school, block-letter nameplates above the lockers, each locker has the player’s name and picture.

Here is Jordan Love's stall in the Packers' new locker room at Lambeau Field.
Here is Jordan Love's stall in the Packers' new locker room at Lambeau Field. | Photo courtesy Green Bay Packers

“I was amazed,” Love said. “Obviously, we knew throughout OTAs that they’ve been building this new locker room and putting a lot of work into it, but this is completely different than the locker room we were in before, and it’s very cool. Very high tech, everything’s very nice in here, so we’re definitely blessed being in here.”

Added running back Josh Jacobs: “Man, it’s amazing. It’s a lot different, man. It just makes coming to work, even on them harder days, it makes it feel not as hard. You’re coming into something where you feel comfortable. You can sit down and relax and they have everything you need here. So, I think that’s definitely huge for your mental.”

Of course, a locker room has never won a game, let alone a Super Bowl.

“I think it’s nice but, like I told our guys, it gives us zero wins,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “You got to go out there. Nothing’s changing with that football field. You got to go do it out there. Although it is a great luxury, I just want our guys to understand, (and) I told them yesterday, we got all these sexy facilities, but understand there’s nothing sexy about the process. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, sacrifice, pain to get to where you want to go. Hopefully, at the end of it, there’s a payoff.” 

There is a daily reminder of that payoff.

There is a hallway that connects the locker room to the field. On the field side of that hallway are green-and-yellow banners representing each of the team’s 13 NFL championships. Nearest the locker room, there is a banner for 1996 and 2010, the last two Super Bowl wins. Right at the entryway, there’s an empty banner, just waiting for the next Super Bowl victory.

New Packers receiver Mecole Hardman won three Super Bowls with the Chiefs. He knows what a championship team is all about, and that grind starts at training camp.

“It’s just building that brotherhood, that bond with everybody,” he said. “Establishing the standard and your goals and knowing when you go out there to practice, knowing what we trying to accomplish, I think that’s in this locker room. Everybody knows what’s the goal at hand and what we got to do to achieve that goal. 

“Since I got here, all I see is everybody working very hard, so that’s a good sign. Everybody willing to work, everybody wants to work, and everybody got the same goal, and that’s what you need.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.