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Green Bay Packers fans want to thank the person who made the team's playoff run possible -- Arizona wide receiver Nathan Poole -- and even the mayor is joining in with an invitation to Sunday's playoff game.
Poole caught the game-winning touchdown pass as time ran out in Arizona on Sunday to defeat the Minnesota Vikings 18-17. The Vikings' loss gave the Packers the NFC North title and eliminated Minnesota from the playoffs.
Poole will be celebrated this weekend, when he and his wife travel to Green Bay to attend the Packers' game Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks with Mayor Jim Schmitt.
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``Of course, he's my favorite non-Packers player,'' Schmitt said. ``The Packers
deserve to be in the playoffs, and the way the system works they wouldn't have
been allowed in without a (Cardinals) victory over the Vikings, and Nathan played
a big part of that.''
Schmitt's invitation took Poole by surprise.
``I heard that the fans in Green Bay were quite some fans, but I didn't expect this,'' he said in a telephone interview Monday with the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
He wasn't even thinking about the Packers when he made his catch at the end of the game.
``I was just trying to get a victory for the team because we've been down,'' Poole said.
Schmitt also will give Poole a key to the city.
``Anyone who assists in getting us in the playoffs like Nathan did is a friend of the city,'' Schmitt said.
Local hotels, too, want to thank Poole for the increased revenue his catch will bring them.
Hotel employees have been busy reserving rooms since soon after the playoff picture was finalized.
``I thought, maybe we should send a fruit basket to this guy, because he's just dropping money into our lap,'' said Todd Casper, front-office manager at the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center in Ashwaubenon.
The hotel is already booked for Sunday night, he said.
Casper acknowledged to basking in the Lambeau Field revelry Sunday night after the game.
``There was about 10 minutes
of enjoyment before I thought, `Oh my God, I really need to be at work,''' he
said.