If you’re a fan of sports teams in the state of Wisconsin, days like Sunday are about as rare as “””?ice storms in Texas.

It’s not awful to be a fan of Wisconsin-based sports teams. It’s not a relationship rife with despair. Cleveland fans have it much worse, as do others.

But Green Bay’s Super Bowl victory is just the second time a Wisconsin professional sports team has won a title since Lew Alcindor and Oscar Robertson led the Milwaukee Bucks past the Baltimore Bullets in the 1971 NBA Finals.

So, basically, winning Super Bowl XLV tastes better than every cheese curd, brat and beer I’ve ever had.

I don’t know how else to describe the happiness other than “being pregnant with joy.” After the game, I could only marvel at the season and the team. One random thought sporadically entered my head one after another. I could hardly string them all together into one cogent thought.

So here’s a tidbit of the musings that rushed through my skull Sunday night:

1. When looking at the leaders of the last two Packer Super Bowl teams, it’s easy to spot the similarities between Charles Woodson and the late, great Reggie White.

Both spent the majority of their careers elsewhere before spending a good amount of time in Green Bay late in their careers. Neither player slowed down with the Packers and neither player had a Super Bowl title among their repertoire of accomplishments. Both felt they were running out of time to earn a championship.

For their teams, both stood for the best kinds of football players. The ones that were humble, beloved, worked hard their entire careers, never gave up and deserved everything they hadn’t yet received. They were pillars of inspiration and played important roles in their championships.

2. Super Bowl XLV represented the Packers’ entire season in a nutshell. Green Bay overcame 15 players on injured reserve to reach the grand stage and when they finally got there, the injuries did not halt. More than that, the injuries claimed two of Green Bay’s biggest emotional leaders in Donald Driver and Woodson.

Although their games may have been up and down, Jordy Nelson (nine catches, 140 yards) and Jarrett Bush (four solo tackles, one interception), kept the season-long drumbeat going without stutter.

3. It was in the unlikeliest of places I realized the Packers had a legitimate chance of winning in Dallas this year, but it came after the embarrassing 7-3 loss to Detroit.

It was an ugly defeat, but it exposed the fact that the Packers had the two bare essentials for a title: (1) They had a phenomenal defense and (2) they had a phenomenal quarterback.

The Packers lost that game because the offense shriveled up without Aaron Rodgers. As admirable as Matt Flynn was the next week against New England, the offense floundered in Detroit.

Because of the defense, Green Bay never trailed by more than seven points this year and never lost by more than four points. They were always in the game. A ground attack, even for a team that plays in the northern winter like Green Bay, is not a necessity when you have a great quarterback. Five out of the last 10 Super Bowl winners did not have a running game that finished in the top half of the league. Only four were in the top 10.

But if there’s no ground game, the defense and quarterback need to be extraordinary to deliver the Lombardi trophy, like the Packers’ were.

4. Desmond Bishop, Howard Green, Charlie Peprah and Frank Zombo - how many Packer fans knew those names during training camp (Hell, Green wasn’t even on the team until Week 8)?

Bishop had eight tackles – three for loss – and a fumble recovery. Green helped force Nick Collins’ pick-six. Peprah led the team with 10 tackles – nine solo – and didn’t get beat in coverage. Zombo had a sack, another tackle for loss and has the coolest name I’ve ever heard.

All of them capped off superb season-long play with the above stats in the biggest game. Here’s to hopefully seeing more from them in the coming years.

5. I hope the Packers give a ring to Al Harris. Why not? For seven seasons he was a big reason why the Packers were a playoff team. After his devastating injury and subsequent departure from the team, he left thanking the Packer nation for the time he spent there.

Indianapolis gave Edgerrin James a ring when it won four years ago even though he left the team in the offseason before. Harris was cut midseason. The Packers can honor him with the same gesture.

6. I hope A.J. Hawk returns next season in a Packer uniform. He may not be the big name linebacker he was believed to become when he was drafted No. 5 overall, but the five-year pro has been dependably solid over that time and he’s coming off his best year yet, posting 134 tackles and three interceptions en route to earning a Pro-Bowl alternate tag. He’s also never missed a game in his career.

Hawk has a $10 million dollar pay stub coming soon, and Green Bay likely won’t pay it. He’ll have to restructure his deal or find a new team. With the emergence of Bishop and the likes of Brandon Chillar and Nick Barnett returning from injury, it’ll be interesting to watch.

7. I’m glad the Packers wore their green jerseys for the Super Bowl. As the home team, they had a choice to revert to the white, like the Steelers did six years ago when they traversed three away games in the postseason to the Super Bowl. The Steelers wanted to keep the theme of winning on the road going and the Packers could have done the same.

Maybe it was the extra lighting that comes with a dome, but I swear those green jerseys never looked more beautiful and the yellow never looked so bright.

Yeah, the Packers were a true road team, but they embraced the Super Bowl as their home. Being the second-youngest team in the NFL, don’t be surprised if they get comfortable there for the next couple years.

Elliot is a junior majoring in journalism and sweet, sweet glory. What thoughts do you have on Green Bay’s achievement? Email them in written form to [email protected].