Vince Lombardi stared down his Green Bay Packers, decades ago, declaring, "Once a man has made a commitment to a way of life, he puts the greatest strength in the world behind him. It’s something we call heart power. Once a man has made this commitment, nothing will stop him short of success."
 Chanting defense: The Green Bay Packers’ mediocre defense needed some help, and so they called upon former Hokie Aaron Rouse, who was thrilled to become a part of Vince Lombardi’s legacy. |
Lombardi has long since left us, yet his words still echo in the ears of anyone who puts on a Packers uniform, including a 2007 rookie from Virginia Beach.
"I came here strong," says former Virginia Tech rover Aaron Rouse. "The Packers expected big things from me." Green Bay drafted Rouse as well as former Tennessee tackle Justin Harrell to tighten up a defense that ranked 12th overall in 2006.
Rouse has been making good on the expectations by creating his own "Lambeau" leap into the Packers game plan rather than just idly sitting back and letting his inaugural year only be a verbal education.
"The NFL is the highest level of football," he says. "You have to be physical, smart and determined." That kind of attitude fits in well with the latest version of Lombardi’s legacy. "We have a lot of young guys playing together and also coming up together. They trust in one another and it shows on defense and shows on the field."
Rouse, who learned under Tech defensive mastermind Bud Foster, now studies under Green Bay defensive coordinator Bob Sanders and secondary coach Kurt Schottenheimer. Yet it’s a more unlikely person who has the greatest teaching effect on Rouse: "I’m trying to learn from Brett Favre because he’s been in the game so long that when I go up against him, it’s the little things," says Rouse. "When he tries to look you off or throw the outs your way. I try to learn the little things from him on offense so I get better on defense."
Facing the future Hall of Famer every day is just one of the pleasant experiences for Rouse in Green Bay. Another is the environment. "Lambeau Field—there’s nothing like it. Seventy-thousand [people] screaming your name. You’ve got flyovers with jets. It’s just an awesome feeling; you get chills before the game and you just want to go out there and bust heads."
Better than Saturdays at Lane Stadium? "Lane Stadium conquered the college world, but at this level it’s Lambeau Field and the Green Bay Packers," says Rouse.
The Packers are unique as they’re the only publicly owned company, with a board of directors, in American professional sports. Usually, a professional sports franchise is owned by one person or a small partnership. In Green Bay, the fans not only have an emotional share in their team but a small financial one as well. According to a 1997 article in the New York Times, "the benefits of owning Packer stock are very uneconomic, despite the Packers’ success." Instead, buyers "become a part of the Packers’ tradition and legacy and part of a unique community-owned team."
To Rouse, it was made immediately clear that the stockholders take care of their shares. "When I moved to my neighborhood, all my neighbors knew who I was before introducing myself. It’s definitely a football town." So much so, in fact, that Rouse thought in the first month he was in the football-town equivalent of Mayberry. "The people definitely love us. One time, I got up at 6am and I’m trying to get here for practice and to watch film and I forgot to take the garbage [out to the curb] and I come home and it’s already taken out for me. It’s small things like that make you feel like it’s home."
Still, Rouse prides himself on his Virginia roots. When the time comes, he says, to do his first "Lambeau Leap," it will be dedicated to the entire Commonwealth that he loves so much.
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