The trophy is named after their coach. That is the first thing to understand about Green Bay. When the 49ers and the Steelers win the Super Bowl, they win the Vince Lombardi Trophy, and Lombardi coached the Packers to the first two of them. Super Bowl I, January 1967, Green Bay 35, Kansas City 10. Bart Starr, a small Wisconsin town, the start of all of it.

Five trips, four trophies

Green Bay has won four of its five Super Bowls. Lombardi and Starr took I and II. Brett Favre and a kick returner named Desmond Howard won XXXI over the Patriots. Aaron Rodgers won XLV over the Steelers. The one loss was Super Bowl XXXII, when Elway’s Broncos beat them 31-24 and ended the run. Four for five is a record almost no one can touch.

The respect I owe

A team from a town of a hundred thousand people, owned by the town itself, has more of these than almost anyone. Packers fans, you hold the deed to the whole tradition. The first Super Bowl, the man on the trophy, the smallest market in the biggest sport. I do not have a memory of Green Bay losing one that hurts. That is its own kind of remarkable.