The Packers last-second playoff win over Dallas proved that they are the real America’s Team, as the sign at Kozy Korner in North Hudson would have you believe, but you might have to resend that memo to The Simpsons and Babe Ruth, as they focused on another sport, doing a vintage baseball-themed show that temporarily left the NFL out in the cold.
Immediate post-game analysis was interrupted by a few minutes of the regularly scheduled Simpsons episode, before the commentators came back on again to sing the Packers’ praises, a lapse that sent people using the time to wander to the bar for a drink. This was also because people were lingering after the final whistle to celebrate at places like the Village Inn in North Hudson, not leave them to go home just yet. One of those revelers wore a jacket with the logos of all the NFL teams, although only one of them mattered today.
Also making a return visit to the venue was Mandy Heidenreich, who was known as a participant in the lavish Viking-themed parties formerly thrown by her father, Al, at their place a few blocks away as the crow flies. On this day, though, she sported Green and Gold. We reacquainted and agreed that somewhere in the Mandy file must be an old photo of both of us at one of those shindigs, each wearing our teams’ colors.
Meanwhile, there is the unfinished business of one more win before getting to the Super Bowl, and this was already being addressed right after the Cowboy game. A man on his cell photo just outside the door was heard saying,” Yeah, I think we can beat them.”
This was not the first time in recent memory that the Cowboys and Packers have had such a playoff clash that was decided by a late flurry of offensive activity. At one such TV game a few years ago, I was taking photos for the Hudson Star-Observer at Dick’s Bar and Grill and met a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, who said she had made the trip north in part to get away from Texas and re-evaluate her romantic relationship. On this day she was more boisterous about football.
And, this wasn’t the only time a former Cowboy cheerleader has hung out at Dick’s. One such woman used to do so on occasion after her work shift at the current Pier 500, then called Sunsets.