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GREENLEAF, Wis. – When the Green Bay Packers are in town, there is a good chance Dan Brick will be at Lambeau Field. The season ticket holder has been going to games since he was a kid, getting morning chores on the farm done in plenty of time to arrive at the stadium before kickoff.
“My dad and I would finish chores by 10 a.m. and be sitting in Lambeau by 11,” Brick said. “There aren’t too many NFL stadiums where you can milk cows and be at the stadium within an hour. It’s a quick commute. There’s no train or subway to get on in Green Bay.”
Brick milks 1,000 cows and farms 1,200 acres near Greenleaf – 25 minutes from Lambeau Field. He acquired season tickets from his parents, who were ticket holders since 1958 – one year after Lambeau Field opened.
“I attended a lot of games as a kid,” Brick said. “My mom and dad always went, but my mom didn’t want to go when it got cold, so I got to go to a lot of the cold games. That was our recreation growing up. My parents gave me their pair of tickets 15 years ago.”  
In 1989, Brick put his name in for the opportunity to purchase season tickets someday and is now No. 329 on the list.
“When all my kids were born, we put their name on the list, too, and they’re like No. 80,000,” Brick said. “My oldest is No. 72,000 on the list. They’ll probably be 30-or-40-years-old when they get them, but most people are dead by the time they receive the call.”
The memories Brick and his father made spending time together watching football are ones he cherishes to this day. Brick has continued the tradition with his own children, taking turns bringing one of his sons along to each game. His wife, Melanie, occasionally goes to a game as well. The couple has three boys – Sawyer,13, and twins Elijah and Ian, 11.
“Sawyer and Elijah love football, but Ian does not,” Brick said. “Hunting, fishing and farming are more his thing.”
Brick has the gold package and attends six games each year. On Jan. 22, he and Elijah attended the divisional round playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers. Lambeau Field was filled with adrenaline that night as Packers fans cheered and shouted for the green and gold.
“We did not sit at all during the game,” Brick said. “Everyone was standing and yelling. Playoff games definitely bring a different intensity compared to a regular season game. It was a pretty cold night, but it was not the coldest game I’ve been to.”
In the second half, they started to feel the momentum die.
“The offense wasn’t able to move the ball, and the poor performance by special teams deflated the crowd,” Brick said. “It’s not the way we wanted it to go. We sit in the south end zone, and being so close, we could hear the sound of the punt getting blocked as well as the blocking of the field goal. From where we sit, we’ve seen a lot of great plays and not-so-great plays over the years. The game went from everyone high-fiving each other to walking out at the end in a somber mood.”
If the Packers had won that night, Brick was planning to attend the NFC championship game with Sawyer.
“Now Sawyer will get to go to the first game next year,” Brick said.
Some of Brick’s all-time favorite Packers players include Bart Starr, Brett Favre, Reggie White, Aaron Rodgers and Jordy Nelson.
“Favre became a Packer when I graduated from high school, and he put the excitement back into football,” Brick said. “Jordy Nelson was another great one. He was a farmer, and Green Bay is a great place to play football if you’re a farmer.”
The most exciting and memorable Packers game Brick ever attended was the 1996 NFC  championship game when the Packers beat the Carolina Panthers to go to the Super Bowl.
If he is not at Lambeau, Brick is sure to watch the Packers on TV but said nothing compares to the thrill of attending a game in person. Brick enjoys the atmosphere at Lambeau Field that television cannot duplicate.
“It’s just a different experience being at the stadium,” he said. “TV has come a long ways, but it’s still more fun to be at Lambeau. And the location is convenient for us. It’s also an opportunity to spend time with my kids. You never forget the games you go to in person. Those game memories stick with you because you always remember being there, but you might not remember a game as much that you watched on TV.”
Brick said he is fortunate to park two blocks from Lambeau Field in the driveway of an elderly couple he and his wife got to know when she was a waitress.
“We used to pay to park on someone’s lawn, and people would even let us come in to use the bathroom,” Brick said. “That’s pretty unique about Lambeau Field. You don’t see that at other stadiums.”
Brick remembers when there used to be a chain link fence on the concourse so the players from the opposing team could cross the hallway.
“Everyone would be up against the fence screaming at the players, especially when the Bears were in town,” he said.
United by their passion for football, Brick has also made friends with fellow season ticket holders sitting around him.
“It’s kind of like a reunion each year when we go back,” he said. “We sit and talk football with everyone. It’s fun.”
Brick and his family also attend training camps and practices seven or eight times a year.
“It’s a really neat experience because the kids bring their bikes and the players come out of the locker room and ride the bikes to practice as the kids run alongside them,” Brick said. “A lot of rookies do it. It’s pretty cool. The kids get autographs and pictures taken with the players. One of my sons had Tim Boyle once, who is now the backup quarterback for the Detroit Lions. Over the years, we’ve met quite a few players in person and shook a lot of their hands.”
Looking ahead to the next season, Brick is hopeful Rodgers will return and said it will be interesting to see how the Packers handle their salary cap issue.
“I think the Packers still have a Super Bowl-winning caliber team and an MVP quarterback, whereas a lot of other teams do not,” Brick said. “My family and I are already looking forward to next year.”

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