It is not a secret that the lifespan of a professional football player is significantly shorter than that of the average man (football players die in their 50s on average). Common sense suggests that the abuse a player’s body takes throughout the course of his career is what leads to an earlier demise. But revelations made over the past few years that have shown the effects of the head trauma football collisions cause has me wondering how long this beautiful-but-violent game has before it is simply deemed too unsafe to play.

Over the last several years, the medical community has revealed more and more that head trauma – especially the kind prevalent in football – leads to an ever-widening array of medical problems. Concussions, once considered to be not especially serious, are now being treated with an extreme level of care. Science has revealed that players who suffer repeated concussions – which is a bruising of the brain – can increase their odds of long-term damage exponentially. It is the bruising of a not-entirely-healed brain that can lead to many ailments including paralysis and dementia, among others. Recently, a Boston University study found that head trauma can lead to ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The National Football League, for its part, has become proactive in making rule changes to try and lessen the potential for such head trauma in the game. But as the years roll on, and more and more disturbing information is released about the long-term health risks football players take, I can only wonder when the time will come that the league is forced to change drastically, or cease to exist altogether.

Given what we have learned about the relationship between football, brain injuries and the consequences thereof, I wonder how much longer American football will continue to be, and what it will look like if it is still around in ten, twenty years.

But as a sports fan, I’ve always wanted to be able to celebrate my birthday in conjunction with one of my favorite teams.  Baseball fans with summer birthdays have incredible good fortune in this regard; they have warm weather, the beautiful ballpark, lots of sunlight and all that goes with it.  I, on the other hand, have my abusive spouse-like football team, the Chicago Bears, to torture me.

I thought back upon it, and I couldn’t recall if the Bears had ever won a game on my birthday.  I remember a party on my golden birthday in 1990 where the Bears lost to the Washington Redskins.  So I did some research, and discovered that, lo and behold, my favorite team had never gifted me a victory on my birthday.  Not only that, in the four instances during my lifetime that they’ve played on December 9th, they’ve performed especially hideously on that date.  Let’s have a look:

1984: my third birthday

The beloved achieved their highest offensive output in any of the December 9th games, scoring 14 points against the hated Green Bay Packers.  Starting quarterback Rusty Lisch – nope, I’ve never heard of him either – threw no touchdowns and an interception in the 20-14 loss.  But noteworthy was Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton’s touchdown pass to Matt Suhey, which was – disturbingly – the first of only two passing touchdowns the Bears have mustered on my birthday to date.  That’s correct: four games, two passing touchdowns, one of which was by a running back.  Wow.

1990: my ninth birthday

Quarterback Jim Harbaugh led an explosive Chicago scoring attack to three Kevin Butler field goals.  Redskins quarterback Mark Rypien desperately attempted to gift myself and my Bears the victory by throwing a stunning five interceptions, but Harbaugh’s own pair of misfires ultimately sealed our fate in a 10-9 nail biter.  Boy, that sucked.

2001: my twentieth birthday

It took eleven years for the calendar to align with the schedule and allow the Bears another crack at breaking the hex of my birthday.  And let’s face it, if there was an appropriate decade in team history to skip, it was the 1990s.  After all, they’d compiled a 70-98 record following the ’90 game through the 2000 season, the odds were well stacked against me during those lean years.

But if ever there was a year they could do it, 2001 was it.  They came into my 20th birthday with a record of 9-2, the surprise Cinderella team of the entire NFL (well, one of them… the other one had Tom Brady).  The Bears had this incredible streak of luck.  They won back to back games where safety Mike Brown returned interceptions for touchdowns in overtime.  Hell, their quarterback had the same name as my best friend!  How could this team let me down?

The game was a rematch against one of only two teams that had beaten the Bears that year, the loathsome Green Bay Packers.  Quarterback Jim Miller threw for… an interception.  The Bears lost to Brett Favre and the Packers, 17-7.  The lone score came on a run by rookie running back Anthony Thomas.  The Bears won their next four games that year and went into the playoffs at 13-3, where Donovan McNabb and the Philadelphia Eagles promptly disposed of them in the final game played in old Soldier Field.  The bottle of Jack Daniels I followed that game with had no chance.  Neither did the futon I reupholstered that night.

2002: my twenty-first birthday.

In retrospect, this would’ve been a good game to go to.  A jaunt down to Miam in December for my 21st?  Take in a Bears-Dolphins game?  What could be bad about that?  Nothing… except for the game itself.  The Bears achieved what I thought was impossible that Monday night: putting on their worst performance my birthday had ever seen.

Chicago had three quarterbacks on the roster that day, and all three of them played… and played badly.  Miller completed three passes for nine yards – and an interception – before being carted mercifully off the field with an injury.  Chris Chandler heated it up for 86 yards on 7 completions, but blemished his Unitasian effort by throwing two interceptions of his own.

But wait, there’s more!

After Chandler proved his worth(lessness), coach Dick Jauron put in perhaps the most infamously inept quarterback in Chicago Bears history: Canadian Football League legend Henry Burris.  ”Smilin’ Hank” completed one pass.  Of course, that pass was the lone touchdown thrown by a Chicago Bears quarterback on any of my birthdays.

As you might imagine, the Bears lost to the Dolphins that Monday night, 27-9.  (They were so bad they botched the extra point after Burris’ touchdown.)  Chicago quarterbacks – dig this – completed just 11 of their 32 passes for 101 yards, a touchdown, and three interceptions.

Cumulatively, the Bears are 0-4 on my birthday, and their running backs have thrown as many touchdowns as their quarterbacks, who boast a 1-to-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

I can’t even imagine how this is possible.

I mean, it’s not as if they owe it to me to win on my birthday.  But for God’s sake, it’s also the birthday of the greatest linebacker in history, Bears legend Dick Butkus!  Surely if they don’t care for me, they must care for Number 51!

Ehh, maybe not… the day the team retired Butkus’ number 51, they lost 33-6 to Favre and the Packers.

Happy birthday, Mr. Butkus.  Happy birthday to both of us.

There are four specific on-the-field areas of glaring weakness on this team, but none has proven to be more detrimental to the team’s success than the offensive line.  An argument could be made that with even league-average line play, the Bears’ offense would’ve made this a legitimate playoff team.  But league-average would’ve been an enormous improvement.  The left side of the line has to be remade in the off-season, no questions asked.  Orlando Pace and Frank Omiyale have been purely awful, allowing pass rushers to pillage and plunder quarterback Jay Cutler at will.  While Olin Kreutz, Roberto Garza and Chris Williams aren’t exactly studs, remaking an entire offensive line in one off-season is a monumental task.  The left side, for the second year in a row, is top priority.

While the offensive line is very much the top off-season priority, the other three primary areas of need seem to be at a similar level of importance to one another:  safety, wide receiver, defensive line.  The Bears have had a black hole at safety for years, thanks initially to never-ending injury problems for Mike Brown, and more recently due to a succession of failed draft picks at the position.  It’s difficult to determine whether or not anybody from the current crop of young safeties has any real future, but just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean the scouting department is off the hook for doing so.

They likewise do not get a pass for the ongoing ineptitude at wide receiver.  Devin Hester is a good number three NFL receiver, and Earl Bennett and Johnny Knox may well become decent twos or threes in their own right, but the Bears lack a legitimate one or two at the position, and they have since the departure of Bernard Berrian, who was a passable number two, but hardly worth the money he ultimately commanded.  It has been seven or eight seasons since the Bears last have had even a decent number one, dating back to Marty Booker’s prime, where he went to a Pro Bowl.  Unfortunately for the current crop of receivers, the quarterback who is charged with getting them the ball has no time whatsoever to get that task accomplished – thanks to the porous line play.

The defensive line is another ongoing problem that the Bears have had a bunch of bad luck with, to go along with bad drafts, and it all starts with Tommie Harris.  The line – and indeed the entire defense – was dominant when Tommie Harris was healthy and effective in 2005 and 2006 (until injury ended his year prematurely).  Since that time, only an occasional flash of the dominant Harris has appeared (including Thursday night against the 49ers, where Harris had far and away his best game of the year).  However, most of the last two-plus seasons, Harris has been somewhat invisible, rather than the disruptive beast he was early in his career.  While it remains to be seen whether Harris can ever regain that form, it has become increasingly apparent that he won’t be doing so with the Chicago Bears.  Attitude issues and questions about his effort have surfaced, to the extent that he was effectively suspended for the Cincinnati game, and was thrown out early in the Arizona game for throwing a punch.  I would be surprised if Harris is still a member of the Chicago Bears come next season.

While the defensive line has had to sink or swim with Harris, ends Adewale Ogunleye and Alex Brown have never produced eye-popping sack numbers, and as they age, are becoming less effective run stoppers as well.  The Bears are hoping that Gaines Adams – acquired for their 2nd round draft pick in 2010 – will have a big enough impact that any other changes are insignificant by comparison, this unit is plagued with some of the same problems that several other areas on the team have; lack of depth due to ineffective draft classes.  The list of failed defensive linemen the Bears have drafted over the last six years is staggering.  From Michael Haynes to Tank Johnson to Dan Bazuin and so on, the Bears have continuously shot themselves in the foot with their inability to draft effectively.

If you’ve noticed a common theme in the Bears’ problems, you aren’t alone.  College scouting has proven to be the Achilles heel of Jerry Angelo during his tenure as Bears’ General Manager.  The playmakers on the Super Bowl XLI team were primarily drafted by somebody else – whether it was the previous Bears regime, or Angelo’s acquisitions from other teams via trade and free agency.

Where Angelo and his staff have been quite good at scouting and acquiring professional talent via free agency (John Tait, Thomas Jones, Garza, Ruben Brown) and trade (Ogunleye, Cutler), his drafts have produced far less talent than is required in order to consistently win in the NFL.

Those fans calling for Angelo and Lovie Smith and the coaching staff to be dismissed will not be happy with the outcome of this coming off-season, as neither are likely to be dismissed with multiple years remaining on their respective contracts.  On the other hand, it’s quite possible – better than a 50-50 chance, I think – that Ron Turner will be made the scapegoat of the 2009 Bears, which will be quite unfair and unfortunate, considering that he was the offensive coordinator who oversaw the two most productive offensive seasons the Bears have had in the last 20 years (2006, 1995), and cannot be blamed for the poor drafting and bad acquisitions that led to him having the worst offensive line the team has had in ten years.  Nobody short of Bill Walsh himself could’ve had success with this line, yet ill-informed fans are calling for Turner’s head on a platter, and I suspect they’ll get it.  Turner does not deserve the same fate as Terry Shea, Gary Crowton, and John Shoop, but he’ll likely get it.  So goes life as an NFL coach.

As for this season, while Lovie Smith will continue to talk about improving and getting back into the playoff hunt and so on, I feel the top priority should be protecting the franchise’s most important asset:  Jay Cutler.  Keeping Cutler unscathed is critical for the long-term success of the franchise.  A healthy Cutler will be the key to the Bears’ success in three to six years, when they are next ready to compete for a championship.  Cutler is the lone shining light on this team, and is likely one of only a handful of players currently on the roster who will be on the next Bears team to reach the Super Bowl.

If Angelo has done nothing else in his tenure, he has stabilized the most important position on the field for years to come.  The horrendous offensive line he has built in front of Cutler can NOT be allowed to jeopardize the cornerstone of the franchise, as they have through the first nine games of 2009.

It is no easy task to try and say a positive word about the team after that defeat.  Quite frankly, I hate that I feel obligated to do it.  But I do, and I will, because it appears that I’m the only Bears fan whose reason and logic have not completely abandoned them.

First, a (true) cliche.  A team is never rarely as good as it looks when it is winning, and never as bad as it looks when it is losing.  A 45-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals (who, by the way, I picked to turn it around this year and go 9-7, thank you very much) is not an accurate indicator of the quality of this team.  That game was an aberration; an ugly, awful, cringe-inducing, soul-crushing aberration.  But it is no more and no less representative of the 2009 Chicago Bears as their 48-24 dismantling of the Lions, their exciting 25-19 comeback over the Seahawks, or their 17-14 triumph over the defending Super Bowl champions.

In fact, each of their six games has taught us something about this team.  In Green Bay, against Pittsburgh, and in Seattle, we learned that they’re capable of coming back from a deficit and taking a lead late in the game.  In Green Bay and Atlanta, we learned that despite valiant fourth-quarter surges, they can be beaten on the last drive of the game.  Against Detroit, we learned that they are fully capable of completely dominating an inferior opponent.  And against the Bengals, we learned that they’re capable of laying an egg.

This is not the same team I picked to go 11-5 before the season.  The offensive line is considerably worse than I anticipated it being.  The biggest strength of the defense – the linebackers – has suffered a remarkable number of injuries.  Brian Urlacher may no longer be the best player on the Bears’ defense, but there is no question he’s at least second-best, and still just as important to the effectiveness of the unit as anybody else on the field.  His immediate understudy, Hunter Hillenmeyer, also has missed playing time, and has been forced into multiple positions due to injuries to a third starter, Pisa Tinoisamoa.  Depth at the running back position has been greatly diminished due to injuries to Kevin Jones and Adrian Peterson.  While injuries to depth players shouldn’t matter too much, the inability of the starter at that position – Matt Forte – to play effectively only highlights the injuries.

Where Frank Omiyale was expected to be a rather significant upgrade at the left guard position, he has been a tremendous disappointment.  Where Orlando Pace was expected, if healthy, to perform at an above-serviceable level, his play has been poor.  Where Greg Olsen was expected to take a step from solid tight end to Pro-Bowl tight end, he has not.  And so on.

Despite the injuries and ineffective performances, this team has managed to win three games, including one against the defending champs.  They have had moments of brilliance.  They are not the 11-5 team I was expecting, but they are not the 5-11 team many are now fearing.

Take a deep breath, Bears fans.  Exhale slowly.  Relax.  And remember: it was one game.  Only. One. Game.  Do not throw out the baby with the bath water.

- Detroit’s first touchdown drive essentially consisted of one big play to Calvin Johnson.  After that play, the Bears stopped the Lions in their tracks at the 22 yard line.  A dumb offside penalty on the ensuing field goal attempt extended the drive.  A phantom facemask penalty on a 3rd down play where the Bears had successfully stopped the Lions a second time extended the drive again.  The defense couldn’t stop the drive a third time, and the Lions eventually got into the end zone.  I can’t hang that touchdown on the defense; a dumb penalty and a phantom penalty were the keys to that one.

- If Earl Bennett doesn’t make an exceptional leaping catch on a Jay Cutler fastball to end the first quarter, the pass is intercepted.  It wasn’t a poor pass, but it was a ballsy one.  Cutler put the ball in the only place where Bennett could catch it, and he must have had a ton of faith that Bennett would.  It has been remarkable to see Bennett’s development this season with Cutler around.

- Cutler did not have a lot of passing yards.  Even though the defense gave up a few scores, they combined with an excellent special teams effort to put the offense in outstanding field position all game long.  Cutler simply wasn’t forced to drive long distances for his scores in this game.

- Coach Lovie Smith seemed to be outsmarted by the Lions when he called for a replay review of a Calvin Johnson sideline catch in the second quarter.  After the play was initially ruled a catch, the Lions no-huddled and tried to run a play, which would seem to indicate that they believed there was a chance the play could be overturned.  Either they simply didn’t think that the catch was legitimate, or they bluffed Smith into throwing the challenge flag without proper review.  It took me exactly one replay angle to see quite clearly that the catch was legitimate.  Good job by the Lions to get Lovie to use a challenge (and timeout) unnecessarily.

- On the Cutler fumble that was recovered by Desmond Clark, at first glance it would appear that the pressure was caused by Garrett Wolfe insufficiently blocking the defender who would eventually strip Cutler.  Upon closer review, Wolfe actually made a very good block on the outside rusher, but because of penetration by an inside rusher who escaped the block of Orlando Pace, Cutler was forced to his left and directly into the recovery path of the same rusher Wolfe had successfully blocked.  That nearly-lost fumble is on Orlando Pace, not Garrett Wolfe.

- Not only wasn’t Johnny Knox touched on his kickoff return for a touchdown to start the second half, he had to make only one (somewhat subtle) evasive move and then hit the gas peddle.  Unbelievable blocking by special teams coordinator Dave Toub’s unit all day long, and especially on that play.

- Israel Idonije seems to make at least one big play every week.  He forced a key second half fumble this week.

- Brad Maynard is one hell of an asset.  He twice placed punts inside the 5 yard line, and all four of his punts landed inside the 20.

- Taub earned his pay yesterday.  The Bears’ return game is consistently one of their best components, Maynard and Robbie Gould are both at the top of their game, and their kick coverage teams are consistently solid.  Gould gets an honorable mention for his career-long 52 yard field goal.

- The offensive line played better on running downs, as evidenced by Matt Forte’s big day on the ground.  Cutler is still getting hammered too frequently for my comfort, however.

- On the TV broadcast, Brian Billick was quite enjoyable.  He is skilled at communicating the intricacies of what he sees to the viewer.  I’m usually a big fan of former coaches doing that job rather than former players.  Coaches who have had a measure of success tend to have that success because they can effectively communicate football theory, strategy and logic to their pupils.  This skill is quite evident in the broadcast booth.

Overall Week 4 notes and my power rankings will follow after Green Bay-Minnesota tonight.

- Offensive coordinator Ron Turner called an excellent game.  He knew early on that the Bears would have little success running the ball against the talented Pittsburgh front, and game planned over that problem by utilizing the short passing game rather than the hand-off.  In essence what the Bears did was substitute the 3-7 yard passing game for a majority of the running game.  Very few times did Jay Cutler look to throw the deep ball before checking down to short-range targets.  Turner obviously knew that it was unlikely that James Harrison and company would afford Cutler enough time to go through all of those progressions, so Turner effectively chopped the deep ball out of most of the game plan, and that is why the Bears won the game.

- Ben Roethlisberger had a rough outing.  Pressure from the Bears was not always immediately in his face, but the coverage schemes down field had Roethlisberger baffled long enough for Alex Brown and company to free up and get in his face, or, at worst, only allow shorter passes instead of the long bombs that Ben was clearly looking for.  Effective prevention of the vertical passing game by the Bears’ defense.  Pittsburgh would’ve been wise to use a similar game plan to Turner’s, but they did not have as much respect for the Bears’ secondary as perhaps they should have.

- Roethlisberger should’ve had a second interception; Kevin Payne dropped a pretty easy one.  In the first two weeks, Kevin Payne is making too many mistakes.  One way or another, those must be limited/eliminated.

- Greg Olsen is an absolute stud for staying in the game after the two nasty hits he took.  He couldn’t hang onto the ball on the sideline play, but the deep seam route later in the game was an outstanding catch and hang-on.  The Bears could very well have lost the game were it not for Olsen’s presence, as he quickly and instinctively recovered Matt Forte’s nearly-disastrous fumble late in the fourth quarter.  (Re: the deep seam play:  I doubt that play would’ve been available to the Bears had Troy Polamalu been healthy.)

- CBS cut to a shot of Polamalu on the sidelines after Jay Cutler’s touchdown pass to Kellen Davis.  Troy had a look on his face like he’d never seen somebody make a throw like that in his life.  It’s possible that he never had.

- Alex Brown spent a lot of the afternoon in the offensive backfield.  Excellent game from Brown.

- The deep down-the-middle pass to Santonio Holmes late in the 3rd quarter was one of the very few down-the-field opportunities Roethlisberger had all game.  If Brian Urlacher had been patrolling that area instead of the late-arriving Hunter Hillenmeyer, I don’t think that connection is made.

- Charles Tillman did not deflect that incomplete pass to Holmes in the end zone, but his hand was in Holmes’ face and was absolutely the reason Holmes couldn’t make the catch.  The ball was right there for him, but Santonio clearly couldn’t see it because of Peanut.

- The Bears’ game-winning drive began on their own 33 yard line with 3:18 left to go in the game.  Robbie Gould’s kick sailed between the pipes with fifteen seconds left on the clock.  For as poor as Lovie Smith’s clock management was in the first game, credit must be given to him for excellent use of nearly every available second at his disposal on Sunday.

- I know Robbie Gould doesn’t have the jewelry, but if there’s a 45 yard field goal to be made and my life is on the line, I’m having a real hard time choosing between he and Adam Vinatieri.

One of Costas’ questions was in regards to the format of overtime in the NFL, and what Madden’s opinion is of the possibility of changing it, as has been talked about in recent years.  I’ve penned my opinion on the subject before, but I hadn’t considered the unique concept that Madden suggested.

While he said he’d rather the current format go unchanged, Madden said that if the league were to change overtime rules, he would like to see the overtime period begin just as the second or fourth quarter would.  In other words, after swapping sides of the field and a 2 minute timeout, the team with possession at the end of regulation would maintain posession at the same down, distance and field position in the overtime period.

This is interesting for a few different reasons:

1.  It solves the biggest problem that opponents have with the current system – the coin toss.  No longer would an arbitrary factor influence the outcome of the game as frequently as it currently does.

2.  It does not compromise the integrity of the game, as many other suggested solutions would.  The type of football that is played for the entirety of the game would remain the same into the extra period, without banishing use of the field goal, adding a possession, or sacrificing the element of sudden death.

3.  A team down by 3 points would have added motivation to go for the victory (touchdown) in regulation rather than the tie (field goal), because they know that their opponent will have the opportunity to have a complete, uninterrupted series of downs after the ensuing kickoff, without expiration of the game clock being a factor and essentially “saving” them from having to defend an entire possession.

It’s been a number of years since John Madden has consistently delivered relevant football commentary.  Toward the end of his broadcasting career, he seemed to become almost a parody of himself, without a hell of a lot of substance.  But this particular idea is a very good one, and I’m pleased that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell recognized Madden’s value and added him in a football advisory role to Goodell’s office, even if Madden’s value became difficult for many of the rest of us to recognize in recent years.

Unfortunately, I have yet to see the entirety of the Bears’ victory over the Steelers, as my cable went out during the first drive of the second half, and didn’t come back on until after the game had ended.  I will catch a replay on NFL Network or On Demand and do a write-up later this week.  Suffce it to say, I’m quite pleased.  Listening to only the radio was a pretty cool “throwback” feel.  There’s nothing quite like a game-winning play call with the home broadcast team, and just imagining it in your mind.  It was a nuisance that the TV was out, but I really enjoyed just focusing on Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer’s call on WBBM.

Here are some quick hit week 2 thoughts.

- Tom Brady is human!  Through that whole game, I kept waiting and waiting for the other shoe to drop on the Jets, and it never did.  No Brady magic this time.

- Wild one in Philadelphia.  Drew Brees was awesome again, but the Saints’ defense made Kevin Kolb look almost as good.

- I had a feeling about those Bengals.  Sadly, I went against my gut, and it cost me in my pool.  I love Ochocinco though, and I really hope Carson Palmer returns to form this year.  This was a good first step.

- Andre Johnson showed yet again – on several plays – why he is the best wide receiver in the game today.  The man is a ridiculous physical specimen.  I kind of hope Rex Grossman gets a chance to play at some point, because I’m curious to see what his production level is with a real WR (for once).

- The New York Giants – as I’ve said before – are the best team in the NFL.  They gave up a few too many points to a struggling Tony Romo however, and if Justin Tuck misses time with his shoulder injury, that could spell trouble for Big Blue.

- What the hell, Tennessee?  I pick you to win the AFC, so you decide to lose every AFC game you can get your hands on???

- Washington 9, St. Louis 7?  That game lived up to every last expectation I had for it.  I may be agnostic, but I’m going to thank a deity that I wasn’t forced to watch that thing.

- Chris Johnson, my fantasy team thanks you for your contributions.  May “God” bless you and yors.

Starting this week, I will post a Top 10 power ranking as I see the NFL.  I figure if they let any idiot who writes for a sports site do such a thing, why wouldn’t I be as qualified?  And again, Bears wrap later in the week.

Lovie Smith had one of his worst games from a game-management standpoint that I can recall.  Terrible clock management and two very ill-advised replay challenges showed that whoever among his staff is in charge of telling him to challenge or keeping proper time was asleep at the wheel.

News this morning is not good on the injured linebackers.  Brian Urlacher fractured his wrist and will require surgery.  Early reports have him missing roughly six games.  (Update: Urlacher will miss the remainder of the season after wrist surgery.)  Pisa Tinoisamoa has a knee injury, and word currently is that he’ll miss between 3 and 6 weeks.

My prediction of an 11-5 campaign for the Bears and an appearance in the NFC championship game was, obviously, predicated on the Bears remaining relatively healthy, as any NFL team must in order to win.  Should Urlacher’s injury have as significant an impact on his season as I now suspect it will, that is a total game-changer, no matter how good Jay Cutler and the offense are from this point forward.

As stinging as that loss was, the longer-term ramifications of what happened in Lambeau Field last night could be truly season-altering.