I was going to write a column this week about the current state of the Packers, but I’m running out of ways to put lipstick on a losing pig. So instead, I’ve decided to write about a good guy we lost this past week: AllGBP and Cheesehead TV’s Adam Czech.

I didn’t know Adam very well. But that didn’t matter this week. My heart ached just as much as everyone else’s when I saw the Twitter post that I knew was coming sooner than later, that Adam’s year long battle with metastatic colon cancer had come to an end. Unfortunately the good guys don’t always win, but his suffering was over.

Adam was one of the first people I followed when I discovered there was a whole Packers fandom that gathered on Twitter each game day and in between back when I joined the masses during that 2010 Super Bowl run. His humor drew me to his tweets, and it ultimately lead me to his writing both at All Green Bay Packers and then at Cheesehead TV.

I always appreciated his perspective of being a diehard Packers fan entrenched in Purple Central. He wore his love of the Packers with a badge of honor and was not afraid to declare it in the Humpdome and the woeful Minnesota Vikings.

Even though I am a recovering metal head (don’t judge, people) I never could quite appreciate his love for Slayer. That was one metal band I could never stomach, but he loved them like a long-haired, headbanging kid. For years, there was the ugly little PT Cruiser that I would see all over town complete with flames down the side (not that anything could make a PT cruiser look bad ass) that had a giant decal in the back window that was emblazoned with the band’s logo: SLAYER. It took up the entire back window. Points for you, little Slayer dude in the laughably un-badass Slayermobile. But for years, every time I saw that car, it made me think of Adam, and it made me smile.

I stopped seeing that car about two years ago. Now I wish it was still around.

Adam was an excellent writer. His blog posts were always one of the gold standards I tried to reach in my own writing. And I will miss his live tweeting during games. He continued to do it, even through the last stages of his illness. We all knew it was a respite from what he called His Stupid Cancer. This time of year, if he wasn’t in a tree stand trying to bag that epic buck, he was all about the football. And when the Packers would stink up the joint, he’d let you know that he probably should have picked the tree stand over the stinkfest on the Fox.

But as the Stupid Cancer began to gain the high ground, one thing stood out more than anything else–Adam’s love for his wife Julianna and their boys Edward and Reggie. Why is in that the good guys are the one’s that get cancer and horrible human beings like mass murders, pedophiles and terrorists seem to walk the earth unscathed.

Before Adam passed, one of his last wishes was for Adam’s Pack to watch out for his family. It was also his dream for his young boys to one day take in a game at Lambeau and discovered the joy of a home game that their own father knew well.

In the past two days, we are starting to see those wishes come to fruition. With all of the negativity that seems to dominate the daily news cycle, it is comforting as we dive head-first into the holiday season that there are still lots of good people out there, and that Adam’s Pack grows each day.

Jersey Al created a Go Fund Me page two days ago to create an educational fund for Edward and Reggie. He wanted Adam’s Pack to fulfill that promise that we all would be there as Adam had wished. What once was a nuclear family of Adam, Julianna, Edward and Reggie has grown to hundred, and that goal of an educational fund is now in sight.

So in this season of thanks (and giving), I encourage you to check out Adam’s writing at AllGBP and CheeseheadTV and revisit his tips for Surviving Sunday and other assorted Packers musing. And if you get a chance, revisit his tweets over at @AdamCzech on Twitter and see how he never gave up hope, never stopped loving the things he loved, and laugh at his dry sense of humor once again.

And after you do that, consider visiting the Go Fund Me page for Adam’s Pack and join that family as well.  If you are able, consider a donation to Edward and Reggie’s educational fund. And if you can’t donate, please help spread the word on social media–Facebook, Twitter, and for you crazy little monkeys, even Tumblr.

The Packers Nation lost a great human being this past weekend. But in that tragedy, a new family–Adam’s Pack–has emerged. And it is proving what this season is all about.

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Kelly Hodgson is a writer for PackersTalk.com and you can listen to her as a Co-Host of Out of the Pocket. You can also follow Kelly on Twitter at @ceallaigh_k

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