Packers’ Sod Is Anything but Dirt Cheap

Four charities anticipate sharing $250,000 by selling boxes of dirt and grass ripped from Lambeau Field after the “mud bowl” game in Green Bay, Wis.

Demand is so high for a “piece of the frozen tundra” from the Green Bay Packer-San Francisco 49er NFL playoff game that organizers intend to package the dirt into 25,000 specially designed Kleenex-size boxes and sell them for $10 apiece.

The sale begins at Lambeau on Jan. 25--the day before the Packers play New England in the Super Bowl at New Orleans.

Mike Meeuwsen, coordinating the sale, expects all 25,000 to sell.

“That’s pretty scary for dirt,” Meeuwsen said of the sod that was replaced for the NFC championship game last Sunday against the Carolina Panthers.

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In a church only blocks from where he ruled the NFL for more than a quarter century, Pete Rozelle was remembered in New York as an innovator who changed the landscape of professional sports in the United States.

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and 17 owners, including Wellington Mara, Lamar Hunt, Dan Rooney and Art Modell, were among a crowd of about 700 at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, where Rozelle was memorialized.

Hall of Famer Frank Gifford, who made the opening and closing remarks, said instead of a memorial he preferred to call the service “a celebration of a wonderful life of a man who achieved unparalleled success in his life’s work.”

Rozelle, commissioner of the NFL from 1963-1989, died Dec. 6 of brain cancer.

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Jim Kensil, called by Rozelle “my offensive and defensive coordinator,” died of complications from a heart condition in Massapequa, N.Y. He was 66.

Kensil was a top aide to Rozelle, serving seven years as director of public relations for the NFL and nine years as executive director, and was president of the New York Jets for 11 years. He retired from the team in 1988 for medical reasons.

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Washington Redskin veteran cornerback Darrell Green will make his sixth Pro Bowl appearance after he was chosen to replace injured Dallas Cowboy cornerback Deion Sanders. Green originally was named a first alternate to the team.

Meanwhile, Sanders underwent successful surgery to repair a broken bone around his eye that he suffered in the Cowboys’ playoff loss to Carolina. He is expected to be fully recovered for next season.