This is therapeutic for me...deal with it

One play rarely alters the course of a team's history. This play, the one in question, is one that still salts my exposed and bleeding Packer heart. And from it have sprung both joy and grief.

A playoff loss to the Vikings at home during which Randy Moss celebrated a touchdown by offending Joe Buck's sensibilities. A 4-12 season. Months and months of multiple off-seasons spent living in fear and loathing of a Brett Favre retirement press conference. A too-good-to-be-true 13-3 2007 regular season.

The sequence receiving the most attention this week, and has been since the Jordan Babineaux sealed the Redskins-Seahawks game in the Wild Card Round, is Mr. We Want the Ball and We're Gonna Score quick cut to Al Harris's walk-off interception in overtime at Lambeau. You may have seen the clip several dozen times already this week.

The play about which I write occurred a week later.

To many, 4th and 26 means plenty. To Freddie Mitchell, a new nickname, "First Down Freddie" (Freddie Mitchell, if you are curious, used to be a wide receiver in the National Football League). To the city of Philadelphia, one of the greatest moments in Eagles' history. For Ed Donatell, it meant he was out of a job. It even has it's own MOTHERFUCKING Wikipedia entry.

I don't believe in teams of destiny anymore.

If ever there was a team that seemed to be one, it was the 2003-2004 Green Bay Packers. Beginning with Irv Favre's sudden and unexpected death and culminating with a 17-14 lead, 1:12 remaining in the 4th quarter, the Eagles on their own 25 with no timeouts, it seemed to the team, to the staff, and to the fans that the Packers were fated to be world champions. In between, there was the 399 yard-4 TD Monday night, the miracle victory by the Cardinals over the Vikings (without which the Packers don't even make the playoffs), and the epic battle against the Seahawks.

And then…the Rebs are on the right flank, headquarters is absorbing massive artillery fire, and it's Joe 'Fightin' Joe' Hooker all over again (OK, that was a thinly-veiled attempt to work the Army of the Potomac into the conversation).

It doesn't matter that the Packers blew a 14 point lead in the game. It doesn't matter that Mike Sherman's play-calling on 4th down was abhorrent. Nor does it matter that the Eagles, after that one play, still had to drive down the field to kick the game tying field goal, intercept a pass in overtime, and then drive again to kick the game winner. The only relevant fact about that game is that if the Packers hold the Eagles to 25 yards or less on that one play, the game is over and won.

How does this relate this week's Divisional Playoff against the Seahawks? Only in my head, apparently. Of the 22 starters and the coaching staff from that team, only 8 remain. Mike Sherman is blessedly gone. Darren Sharper, Ahman Green, Marco Rivera, and Mike Wahle have all left. Bubba Franks is on the bench.

But my demons need to be exorcised and the franchise needs put its post-Holmgren postseason ineptitude behind it. The woeful disappointments of the past 4 seasons have been somewhat assuaged by the Packers' performance during the regular season, however, a one-and-done performance this year would only serve to renew the agony with extreme vigor.

I need a confidence that belies the Packers' status as the youngest team in the league. I need a brilliant game plan from Mike McCarthy, who I hope will spend many years on the Packers' sidleline and have one of the streets surrounding Lambeau named after him. I need someone to put a body on Patrick Kerney. I need Matt Hasselbeck on the turf at least 10 times. And, I desperately need this not to be Brett Favre's last game.

Oh…and just for fun. Reprise, bitches.