Confidence and leadership

WISN's Dan Needles is in Green Bay today covering all of the angles for the NFC Championship game on Sunday.

In a phone call earlier today, I chatted with Dan on what type of things were going on in the press conferences and the locker room. And what I was trying to get at was more mood and feeling rather than the sound bites you'll hear in the news reports tonight.

"I think they are just very confident," Needles said. "When you get to this level, guys usually want to take center stage and may say some outlandish things. It's just not like that."

Needles said that the players are not trying to make a big deal of it, taking a lead from some of the other veteran players. The Packers are more than happy to talk about the weather and the game, but there wasn't the trash talking like what is taking place in the AFC match up between New England and San Diego.

Giants running back Brandon Jacobs contacted the Pack's Ryan Grant after the Dallas game, saying, "We (New York) are coming out there," Needles told me.

"There wasn't anything else about it," Needles said, meaning there was no animosity or tension between the two friends and former teammates.

Some of the national media was trying to get players to talk about the regular season game between the two teams, about some of the cheap shots taken.

"A.J. Hawk, who was a victim of one of those shots just said, 'Hey, that was a good hit. I probably would have done the same thing,'" Needles said.

When covering professional sports, most of the time the participants are not very professional.

Fan can truly be proud of the Giants and the Packers here. Two days before the game and they are truly professional toward each other.