Field of Dreams visit caps eventful Day 3

Katie Hermsen

Thursday, April 16, 2026:

After another night of tornado warnings and heavy rain, the Rock River was rushing outside the hotel as the group embarked on the third day of the Tailgate Tour. Returning to the hotel from the venue the previous night, the famous Tailgate Tour bus found itself navigating torrential downpours and unfortunately, got stuck in the mud while attempting to leave the parking lot. Thanks to some volunteers from Project 16:49 who served as stand-in Uber drivers and a heavy-duty tow truck that dislodged the bus, everyone made it back to the hotel safely and no worse for wear!

With much better weather on the horizon for Thursday, the bus headed for a nearby location for the first stop of the day, the Wisconsin School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (WSBVI).

The school, which is part of the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, offers all standard academic classes taught by high-quality state certified professionals. With assistive technology, Braille instruction, and a variety of transition programs and student life opportunities, the school fits the need of every student that walks through its doors, including some that have additional impairments or disabilities.

The Tailgate Tour group entered a round gymnasium set up for a game of Goal Ball, a Paralympic team sport specifically for athletes with visual impairments. The game is played 3-on-3 on a 9-by-18 meter court with a 2.75-pound ball containing bells, and a goal on each side. Players are blindfolded and they rely on sound to defend their net and throw the ball into the opposing net, emphasizing spatial awareness and teamwork.

After a Q&A with the guys, the students at WSBVI got a chance to teach the players a thing or two, demonstrating the proper way to play Goal Ball. Because the game is so reliant on sound, the spectators must remain silent until a goal is scored, a task which proved challenging for a few of the alumni, who were eager to take the court themselves.

Edgerrin Cooper, Desmond Bishop and Brandon Jackson were on one team, with James Jones, Randall Cobb andEvan Williamson the other. The first match was over quickly, with Jones calling game and sending a shot straight through Cooper's outstretched arms, with Team Jones winning 3-0. But once they switched sides, Cooper got immediate revenge, getting the ball past Williams. After trading goals, Jackson scored the winner, pitching the ball off of Jones' foot before it rolled right into the goal's far corner.

The next visit was down the road at Janesville Parker High School, where the tour crew marched into the gym behind the drum line. Unfortunately, Parker's mascot is the Vikings, but it was all Packers fans in the gym, with a pep rally-like atmosphere. The guys talked to the students about Parker's GOLD standard, which stands for Grit, Outwork, Lead and Discipline, presented a $2,500 donation to the school and tossed T-shirts and footballs into the crowd.

As if the guys didn't get their fill of sweets at O&H the previous day, the next stop was 40 minutes southwest in Monroe, Wis., where the group toured the Swiss Colony, home of Colony Brands. Known for their cheese, chocolates, cakes and candy, the 100-year-old, family-owned institution has 17 direct-to-consumer brands. Their busiest time of year is during the holidays, when boxes of their hand-made chocolates and candy are often sent as gifts.

The tour group greeted employees throughout the facility and got a chance to sample some of the petits fours, chocolates, toffee and cheese and sausage before enjoying a tour of the production floor. One of the tour guides pointed out an enormous bag filled with sugar suspended over a dispenser and a scale, saying the bakery goes through 2,000 pounds of sugar every day.

While countless machines kept the operation moving smoothly, the staff working the production floor were the true stars of the show, expertly spreading buttercream and chocolate and decorating the cakes by hand. Each of the guys attempted to help, but it was like a scene out of "I Love Lucy" as they struggled to keep up with the conveyer belts and do the hand decorating. They walked away with some treats to take back on the bus and a lot of respect for the skilled employees at Swiss Colony.

After a classic Wisconsin lunch at Culver's, the group made its way to Iowa, where the evening fundraiser was taking place at an iconic location. Not heaven, but Iowa the Field of Dreams Movie Site in Dyersville. Fans of baseball and Kevin Costner are certainly familiar with the classic sports movie, which was released in 1989 and has kept this small town in Iowa on the map. In recent years, the site has added event spaces and hosted professional baseball games, with another one coming up this July.

The event was being hosted to benefit NAMI Dubuque, the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. More than 800 fans and NAMI supporters made the journey to Dyersville. Prior to the program in a tented event space, the guys made a pit stop at the famous Field of Dreams itself. Minus the corn, since it is mid-April after all, the field looked just like it did back when the words "If you build it, they will come" were first uttered. The players and alumni never miss an opportunity to compete with each other, taking turns swinging the bat and running the bases.

The guys were introduced for the main program by Dwier Brown, who played the role of Kevin Costner's father and is part of one of the most enduring, heartfelt moments in the movie, where father and son "have a catch." A big football fan, Brown introduced each of the guys with incredibly detailed bios going back to their childhoods. Cowboy Coop enjoyed another opportunity to talk about his horses and Evan Williams got a chance to talk about the influence of his dad and older brother, both college football players, on his playing career.

"Both those guys were the support systems I needed to feel confident in myself growing up," Williams said. "My older brother and my dad showed me just how cool it was to play football, to establish those relationships and all the characteristics you learn from football. They showed me it was cool to be a DB. I fell in love with being a DB because every play is a new opportunity to make a play. They really gave me the pathway to be who I am now."

During the Q&A portion, the conversation turned back to the evening's theme, supporting those experiencing mental health conditions and challenges.

"When I was younger, I thought I could do everything myself," Cooper said, when asked what advice he would give someone going through a tough time. "But I should have had more open ears. Listening to people who had been through the same thing would have helped me a lot."

Jones agreed. "Don't think you're the only one, either. I've sat in the locker room next to Randall Cobb, Jordy Nelson and they were all dealing with stuff. Everybody's dealing with it. It's okay to talk to your teammates, talk to your friends. Don't be afraid to talk to somebody."

The evening wrapped up with a spirited live auction, with signed jerseys, helmets and footballs fetching more donations for NAMI Dubuque. President and CEO of NAMI Dubuque Britni Farber was proud of how the event turned out.

"Professional athletes and those in football and sports should be one of the top places that people are advocating and talking about mental health. Because of the pressure and the stress that comes along with doing anything high performing, but also, so many of these players have such a public platform," Farber said. "I really feel strongly that if you have a voice you should be using it. You can help people to be the best versions of themselves.

"I just feel incredibly blessed to be a part of this. I've been fighting back tears all day. This has been one of the best experiences in the history of our nonprofit, besides our grand opening. This has been amazing."

Wednesday, April 15, 2026:

The second day of the Tailgate Tour followed another stormy night in Wisconsin, with severe weather, lightning and tornado warnings hitting Racine. But by morning, it had faded to a light drizzle and the guys were ready to hit the road again.

The first stop for the day was Washington Park High School, home of the Panthers, where the group spoke with 1,100 students about accountability and leadership. The students asked questions about how it felt to win the Super Bowl and, of course, when they're going to win the next one.

"It's coming this year, my brother," replied Evan Williams with a smile, to a burst of cheers from the students gathered.

The next stop was a particularly sweet one, at a location that puts Racine on the map for pastry lovers around the world: O&H Danish Bakery, a 77-year-old, family-owned scratch-made bakery known for its famous Kringle. Founded in 1949 by Danish immigrant Christian Olesen, it is now run by the fourth generation of the Olesen family using the same scratch-made family recipes.

Named the official state pastry of Wisconsin, Kringle is a Danish dessert made with 36 layers of buttery, flaky dough which takes three days to make. It is then shaped into an oval and filled with flavors like fruit, nuts and cheese, and traditionally topped with icing.

The tour group admired the variety of goodies in the bakery cases and of course, another food-related argument arose when the guys noticed the pecan pastries is it pronounced pe-CAHN or pe-CANN? The matter was considered settled once Peter Olesen, president of O&H Bakery and fourth generation of his family to run the bakery, pronounced it pe-CAHN when the group was receiving a Kringle-making tutorial. But by then, the guys were already joking about something else, with Desmond Bishop receiving some good-natured teasing from his teammates for the creative way he was applying icing to the Kringle at his station.

After learning how to make the Kringles, the group got a chance to tour the production facility, where all of O&H's products get made before being distributed to their local bakeries, retail partners and to Kringle fans who placed orders around the country.

The players and alumni watched with awe as employees added enormous amounts of ingredients, including cinder block-sized bricks of butter, into the industrial sized stand mixers. The tour highlighted the entire Kingle-making process, including rolling out the dough, adding the filling, baking, cooling, icing and packaging the pastries. Enjoying all the sights, sounds and smells of the bakery inspired each member of the group to take home their very own Kringle, as well as the ones they made themselves.

Olesen reflected on what's special about the team that works at O&H Bakery. "It's bakery, it's fun," he said. "You get to work with your hands, you get to make a product every day, you share it with your friends, family, loved ones, the Green Bay Packers. And they taste it and say they love it! It's instant gratification if you do it well. We work hard on that and we work hard on our culture."

Not too far from Racine was the next stop on the tour at Burlington High School, home of the Demons, also well known as former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo's alma mater. Fortunately, there were no Cowboys fans in sight, with an excited crowd of 800 Packers fans and students ready to welcome the guys to the gym.

After speaking about how to be a good person and their favorite leadership lessons, they played a quick game of knockout in the gym, during which a student came away victorious. The crew jumped back on the bus for lunch at a local spot around the corner, Brew & Ole's. The staff was welcoming and kind, and everyone left with a Brew & Ole's T-shirt and hat. The group wrapped up their time in Burlington by browsing some nearby boutiques before heading to Janesville for the evening festivities to benefit Project 16:49.

Held at the Woodman's Sports and Convention Center with nearly 1,000 people in attendance, the event was set up with tailgating games, food stations and raffles, all to raise money for Project 16:49's cause of ending youth homelessness and empowering Rock County's unaccompanied homeless youth to take action to achieve their goals. The highlight for many of the guests was a custom-built Lambeau Leap wall, where fans could climb up and take their picture.

Project 16:49 is named for the amount of time between when one school day ends and the next begins, which can be a lonely and frightening time for youth facing homelessness. The nonprofit's transitional living program has impressive resident outcomes, with 90% of participants obtaining or increasing employment, graduating high school, and exiting transitional living to another safe living situation. In 2025 alone, they supported hundreds of youth with basic needs assistance, aftercare services and housing and case management services.

The program began with the bus pulling into the gymnasium event space through a massive garage door to an incredibly warm welcome from the fans. After the crowd watched a video interviewing some of the young people who have been helped by project 16:49, local radio personalities led a Q&A with the guys.

James Jones again got to reflect on the importance of the mission, with his own personal experience to share.

"It means a lot to me because I was one of those kids on the streets," he said. "Whoever is dealing with that, keep your head up. You see me up here right now and I've been through it."

When one of the fan attendees got a chance to ask Randall Cobb a question, the topic turned, as it often does, to his memories of the 2013 regular-season finale against the Chicago Bears and his winning touchdown catch. After recounting what was going through his head at the moment seeing the faces of the fans in the crowd and knowing the Packers would win Cobb shared how meaningful the bond is between the Packers and their fans.

"We have these shared memories, these shared moments," he said. "I got to see it from my perspective and I get to hear how you guys were feeling in that moment too. It's really special."

Edgerrin Cooper shared his own thoughts about the connection between the Packers and the fans when asked his favorite part about playing for the Green and Gold.

"It's all of you here," he said. "I've never been a part of something like this. The support you give is 100% and it makes us want to give 100% too."

The event wrapped with the guys presenting Project 16:49 with a donation for $25,000 to benefit their programs and lots of selfies, hugs and high-fives with the fans in attendance.

"This has been an unbelievable experience," said Tammy DeGarmo, executive director of Project 16:49, as the evening wound down. "Such an opportunity to raise awareness where people might not have known about us, engage with the community and raise critical funds for our program. We couldn't be more thrilled.

"We are just so appreciative to the Packers organization and we had so much fun with the players."

Tuesday, April 14, 2026:

The morning of the 20th annual Packers Tailgate Tour dawned foggy and chilly, typical for mid-April in Wisconsin. The previous night, severe thunderstorms and heavy rain moved through the area, causing some travel delays for the players and alumni on this year's tour. But it didn't dampen the spirits of the former teammates who were reuniting and the current players who were enjoying their first Tailgate Tour. Joining the tour this year were current players Edgerrin Cooper and Evan Williams along with alumni James Jones, Randall Cobb, Desmond Bishop and Brandon Jackson. All of the alumni are veterans of the Tailgate Tour, with each of them attending during their playing careers and now returning as alumni.

Along with Packers President and CEO Ed Policy, who was embarking on his first-ever Tailgate Tour, they began a five-day journey across Wisconsin and beyond.

The bus traveled down I-43 to the tour's first stop at the Johnsonville Global Headquarters, where Johnsonville employs between 700-800 staff members on-site.

They began with a quick shopping trip at the Johnsonville Marketplace, a store open to the public seven days a week. The group marveled over a Johnsonville sausage grill (molded to the shape of the sausage, no flipping required), discussed the 75 flavors of Johnsonville sausage, and were tempted by a variety of Johnsonville-themed apparel and goodies.

Next, they headed over to a production facility, where they quite literally got to see where the sausage was made. It smelled like the Lambeau Field parking lot on a gameday, with brats smoking in a massive oven before being chilled for packaging.

The guys got to view the production floor from the mezzanine, where they saw employees members, as Johnsonville calls them sorting, packing and quality-checking thousands of brats.

A good-natured argument ensued amongst the alumni as to whether or not an (already cooked) brat is fine to eat right out of the packaging, or if it needs to be grilled prior to consumption. The jury is still out.

Following the production tour, the group was welcomed by hundreds of Johnsonville members to the Big Taste Grill, which was grilling up several different flavors of Johnsonville's finest. It felt like a classic tailgate, complete with cornhole, pictures with the Johnsonville Racing Sausages, music and of course, Johnsonville brats on Sheboygan hard rolls.

Brandon Koehler, director of operations at Johnsonville, said the event was a perfect example of how Johnsonville treats its employees.

"We really like to give back, take care of our team and our members," said Koehler. "Food brings people together. Just like the Packers on Sunday. They bring people together."

Next, the group journeyed further south to Port Washington High School, home of the Pirates. The group entered the auditorium to a welcome that rivaled Lambeau Field on a gameday, with raucous cheers and high-fives. The guys took their place on the stage and spoke about overcoming adversity and the importance of being a good teammate.

Jackson led a "Go Pack Go" chant and kicked off the discussion, and Cobb offered some wisdom to the students, reminding them that learning and leadership starts with whom you follow. "You'll discover that there's people that you should follow and people that maybe you shouldn't. It's about being able to figure that out," Cobb said. "Who is going to help you in that path to get to who you're going to become?"

After tossing some footballs and shirts into the crowd and presenting the athletic director with a $2,500 check for the Pirates' athletic program, the tour headed to lunch, just around the corner at Fork & Tap restaurant.

Kicking off the afternoon, the bus traveled south of Milwaukee to Sturtevant, home of Case IH manufacturing facility. A global leader in agricultural equipment, supporting farmers across Wisconsin and beyond, they are most known for manufacturing and assembling tractors.

Entering the plant, the group was fitted with vests, goggles, and hats before touring the assembly floor.

The plant builds eight or nine tractors every day, with each tractor retailing up to $800,000 each.

Comfort level with the functionality of a tractor varied among the group, with Williams remarking, "What does a tractor do exactly?" while Edgerrin Cooper was ready to take one of the rigs home with him.

At the Racine Experience Center, Kurt Coffey, head of Case IH, got a chance to welcome the tour group and show appreciation to his employees while the guys got to climb into a tractor for a photo. Cowboy Coop looked pretty comfortable behind the wheel, so much so that the staff at Case IH decided to track down some keys to give him a joyride, along with Jones.

It was clear the employees at Case IH, who take a lot of pride in their craftsmanship and the quality of their products, enjoyed seeing the guys get so fired up.

"More smiles, more excitement, true fans building amazing product here in Racine," said Coffey. "But then seeing some of these heroes show up and actually drive our equipment is really rewarding here at Case IH."

The evening activities got underway a few hours later, with a venue change due to the ongoing stormy forecast. Despite the weather, there was lots of excited energy inside the Racine YMCA, where the guys participated in a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity of Racine and Kenosha counties.

During a moderated Q&A session, a Habitat for Humanity volunteer asked the guys not only about their time with the Packers but their experiences as homeowners.

Jones in particular had a lot to share, reflecting on his own experience growing up without a stable home to call his own, a perspective that led him to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity himself.

"To see what Habitat does to put a roof over families' heads and to be a part of that really means something to me," Jones said. "It's important, so kudos to the volunteers and the donors here tonight."

Grant Buenger, CEO at Habitat for Humanity of Racine and Kenosha Counties, said the funds raised at the event will go toward multiple housing projects across Racine and Kenosha.

"We've got five projects that are starting this spring and what's raised from tonight will probably go right into the construction costs for those houses," Buenger said.

He said the event was the perfect way to celebrate and recognize an important cause.

"It's a lot of fun, we get to see everybody come together to meet the Packers, to have an experience that they wouldn't be able to have other than at Lambeau, and to support affordable housing in our community at the same time," Buenger said.