For fans, Green Bay Packers training camp opens in surreal silence befitting the rest of 2020

ASHWAUBENON - Of course it rained. 

The coronavirus had already put a damper on the Green Bay Packers' first practice of training camp after the team announced it would close the popular events to fans. The NFL also canceled preseason games, and the Packers said they will not allow fans at Lambeau Field for at least the first two home games, all in an effort to avoid spreading COVID-19.

Mother Nature's brief deluge Saturday morning just before practice began provided one more reminder of how this year's return to football is different. 

Packers training camp is one of those uniquely Green Bay things about football. Its free, open practices have become a tradition continued by families for generations. They draw tens of thousands of visitors to Green Bay each year and awaken the broader, global Packers community to football's pending return. 

This year is pretty weird, though.

A handful of fans took up random positions around the Don Hutson Center, determined to continue the traditions, to get that glimpse of a favorite player or a high-five, even if it was nothing like the usual atmosphere. 

Still sinking in that the Packers are back

Neither the coronavirus nor a little rain was going to stop 3-year-old Keegan DeMuth from offering an enthusiastic "Hi!" to every player and coach he could as they arrived at the Don Hutson Center Saturday morning.

Many replied back with "Thank you" or "Go Pack Go!" Mike DeMuth, Keegan's dad, said he wanted to continue the tradition started when he was a boy, even if the experience was not the same. So he and Melissa Pierre drove Keegan up from their home in the Appleton area. 

"It's just so different with everything now," DeMuth said while Keegan continued his greetings. "Keegan likes to give them high-fives and say 'Hi' so I told him we could come up."

The storm left a silence in its wake, periodically punctuated by music from the football field or the shrill horn signalling the end of a practice segment. There were no souvenir vendors hawking every sort of team-associated-but-not-trademark-violating paraphernalia you can think of and then some. No joyful reunions or comparing notes on draft picks. No autograph seekers asking parents when Za'Darius Smith or David Bakhtiari or Kevin King is coming.

It's all those things that bring the Packers community together at training camp, and the absence of it all is a reminder of how much it means to us.

Some fans aren't even sure it's camp without the fans. 

Fritzie Neitzel of Green Bay attended her first Packers game in 1946, when she was 10, and was at the Ice Bowl in 1967. She's attended nearly every training camp, even while living in four other states, calling it the highlight of the year.

"I don’t know that it’s really sunk in that there is training camp going on yet," she said. "In my opinion, this is not training camp."

What she likes about training camp is easily summed up — "Every. Thing." — but describing it is more difficult. 

"I don't know any place that does it the way the Green Bay Packers do," Neitzel said. "It’s more than a festival. It’s a celebration. You can’t round it up with just one adjective. It’s a life experience."

As a volunteer for the Green Bay Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, Neitzel worked training camps greeting visitors, and attended many more as a visitor herself.

"I just love hanging out and talking to people. It’s amazing the amount of people I’ve met and talked to from around the world," she said.

'Up close and personal' draws curious fans

The stadium district's bars and restaurants largely slept in. The white party tent in one bar and grill's parking lot wasn't for Packers fans, but for a hot tub and spa sale this weekend. A handful of people sat at tables in the Titletown District promenade while the Kroll's West parking lot looked like it would on any other August day.

Absent were the excited children about to make a memory they won't forget, lined up with bicycles for players to ride down Armed Forces Drive. Gone were the extra bleachers. There was no Greater Green Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau map of the United States stuck full of pins marking fans' hometowns.

The portable metal fences along Armed Forces Drive weren't there to keep fans back, but instead used as a barricade around the giant Resch Expo construction project rising to the north of the Hutson Center. 

This is the first time in more than two decades Bill and Kathy Nelesen didn't make their annual pilgrimage to training camp from Sheboygan. They started in the days when fans would cling to the narrow strip on South Oneida Street to watch practice on Clarke Hinkle Field. 

To them, as to many Packers fans, Lambeau Field is an extraordinary place to watch a football game, but training camp has many attractions, including smaller crowds.

"I loved being there without 60,000 people. It was Packers light, but really up close and personal," Kathy said. "It’s the kids. The whole bicycle thing. What an extraordinary custom that is."

They liked seeing players up close, and as a retired teacher, Kathy observed the training process. 

"I''m always intrigued by the procedures different coaches have in place. You’d expect to see the same thing year after year. It’s not the case at all," she said. 

Bill likes the accessibility of Ray Nitschke Field as well as the opportunity to be close to the players. 

"You could make comparisons. Receivers would be competing for job slots, and you could see the difference between them. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to get up close enough," he said. "You could always find out which players were the comedians."

'About as socially distanced as you can get'

But this year, Bill's beloved bleachers were empty, save for the few media members allowed to watch. Tarps over the hunter-green fences surrounding the Don Hutson Center blocked the view of the handful of pedestrians who walked by and strained for a peek at the top or bottom.

Two such fans, brothers Jack and Matt Hillman, of New York, crouched down near the tarp's bottom to sneak a peek at practice drills. The brothers, ages 25 and 21 respectively, time their visits to see family in Sturgeon Bay so they can stop by training camp. They said they landed at Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport and drove to the Hutson Center fueled only by three hours of sleep and coffee. 

"I've never seen it so empty," Jack Hillman said. "It's very different this year."

"With COVID, this is probably the safest activity we can do today," Matt Hillman said. "We're about as socially distanced as you can get."

And yet the Hillman brothers discovered a new connection to the community Saturday morning as they had the sidewalks largely to themselves.

"It was really fun to get up close and see coaches and players just walking by on their way to practice," Jack said. "We saw David Bakhtiari and Coach Matt LaFleur just walking in. You get to see them up close, get that sense of community."

"I'm surprised we're the only ones here," Matt Hillman said. "It was worth taking the chance."

JEFF BOLLIER is a St. Louis native whose 19 years in Wisconsin almost qualify him for resident status. He arrived in the Badger State via Beloit College and began his journalism career with the Beloit Daily News. He joined the Oshkosh Northwestern in 2003 and introduced his business column, Streetwise, in 2005. From new stores opening to corporate bankruptcies that impact whole communities, Jeff has done it. His work on restaurant health inspections, an air guitar-playing state assemblyman and an aging hotel have earned plaudits from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association.

Contact him at 920-431-8387 or jbollier@greenbaypressgazette.com; follow him on Twitter at @GBstreetwise.

RICHARD RYMAN has reported on the business of the Green Bay Packers for nearly 20 years. He joined the Green Bay Press-Gazette in 1998 after working for newspapers in Illinois and Louisiana. He received numerous reporting awards from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association and other organizations. Ryman began his career as a sports reporter and also worked as a news and business editor.

Contact him at 920-431-8342 or rryman@greenbaypressgazette.com; follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG