The closest thing the NFL has to Bedford Falls, N.Y. — the idyllic town made famous in Frank Capra's "It's A Wonderful Life" — might be Green Bay, Wis., where the quarterbacking pursuits of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers over the past quarter-century have ushered the football hamlet into a quarter-century of unprecedented prosperity.
Favre's wizardry brought the Packers back from the brink of obscurity, delivered the team's first championship in 29 years in 1997 and helped pave the way for the taxpayer-funded $295 million expansion of Lambeau Field in 2003.
Rodgers, his immediate successor, delivered another Lombardi Trophy in 2011, followed shortly thereafter by a two-phase expansion that modernized player facilities, added two new scoreboards and pushed Lambeau's capacity to 81,441 — the fifth-largest stadium in the NFL.