GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Anyone who attended a Green Bay Packers open practice over the past month probably saw it: the silver Chevy Traverse with the stickers on either side of the rear window.
On the left is the University of Wisconsin’s trademark "W" and the No. 71. On the right is a Packers 78.
If that didn’t give away who owned it, a closer look at the 78 showed the name in all caps: VAN LANEN.
Angie Van Lanen regularly made the 12-minute drive from her home in the Green Bay village of Suamico to Lambeau Field to watch her only child, rookie offensive lineman Cole Van Lanen, pursue his dream of playing for his hometown team.
And on the rare days when Angie couldn’t make it, her husband, Tom, was there. Depending on the day, a handful of other family members joined, as well.
Angie didn’t have to think long about how few practices her and Tom would have been able to attend had another team drafted Cole. The Packers selected him in the sixth round, No. 214 overall.
“I wouldn’t have been able to catch a single practice, and these preseason games would probably get really expensive, really quickly,” Angie said while sitting in the friends-and-family section of the stands that overlook the Ray Nitschke practice field.
“There’s no way. We only get so much vacation time.”
There have been other Green Bay natives drafted in recent years. Just last year, the Jets picked quarterback James Morgan from Ashwaubenon High School, a mere 1.4 miles from Lambeau Field. But Van Lanen became the first metro-area player to get drafted by the Packers since 1988, when they took Green Bay West High/Wisconsin quarterback Bud Keyes in the 10th round.
“It was just absolutely unbelievable,” Van Lanen said on draft day, adding his thoughts were about “everyone that's supported me and been around me."
‘Living the Wisconsin kid’s dream ’
It’s the morning of the second-to-last open practice of training camp. The Packers already had their annual Family Night scrimmage in Lambeau Field and the preseason opener against the Houston Texans.
Now, the Jets are here for two days of joint practices before the second -- and final -- home preseason game.
After that, there are no more open practices, and the only remaining preseason game is Saturday in Buffalo -- Van Lanen’s last chance to earn a roster spot. A left tackle his last two years at Wisconsin, Van Lanen has played everywhere but center during camp and is squarely in the mix for one of the backup spots. He played 26 snaps against the Texans and 27 against the Jets last week while switching between tackle and guard.
If Van Lanen doesn’t make it, there’s a good chance he will be re-signed to the practice squad unless another team claims him.
Angie parks her Traverse in the Lambeau lot at 9:25 a.m. She walks across Oneida Street and finds her usual spot along the fence on Armed Forces Drive. Because of COVID-19 protocols, there’s a path guarded by metal barricades that separates the players and coaches from everyone else.
“When I come to the practice, I definitely want to see him walking through,” Angie says.
Once Cole and the rest of the players are inside the Don Hutson Center, where they go through pre-practice stretching behind closed doors, Angie makes her way to the stands.
Not long after, five other members of the Van Lanen cheering section arrive: grandma and grandpa (Angie’s parents), Tom’s brother (Uncle John), an aunt from California and Sam (Cole’s girlfriend).
Tom couldn’t make it because of work. He's just down the road at Tufco, part of Green Bay's large paper manufacturing scene. Angie says she's only here because her bosses at Schneider National trucking, another Green Bay institution, have been "really flexible with me to be able to do this stuff."
“There hasn’t been a day where we haven’t had some family here,” Angie says. “Usually it’s either Tom or I here. And I think we’ve been to three practices together. Whoever isn’t here, we’re filling each other in as practice goes on.
“It’s been really hard to keep track of where Cole is on the line. He’s been all over, sometimes even in the same series he’s on the right side, left side, guard, tackle.”
More than an hour after Angie arrives at the practice field, the Packers finally come out of the Hutson Center. Her eyes immediately scan for No. 78.
“There he is,” she says.
For Sam, it’s the first time she sees Cole that day. She was asleep when he left for the stadium a few minutes before 7 a.m., and she knows he probably won’t be back until after 8 p.m. that night. That’s why she’s here every day.
“I had a job in Madison until a few weeks ago, and I moved up here,” Sam says. “If he was somewhere else, I would’ve moved sooner or later but probably not until he made the team. But I have family and friends here, and we have somewhere to stay, so I can be here every day.”
Throughout practice, Angie, Sam and the rest of the Van Lanen fan club -- Uncle John is wearing a No. 78 jersey -- share their favorite Cole stories.
There’s the one about the first Packers autograph he got as a kid -- A.J. Hawk signed a football that had no air in it because the Van Lanen dog bit a hole in it. And the one about the David Bakhtiari jersey that Cole has owned for years -- Angie wants him to get it signed, but Cole refuses -- and is still hanging in Cole's closet.
Then there’s the one about how the three rookie offensive linemen the Packers drafted this year -- Cole, second-round center Josh Myers and fourth-round guard Royce Newman -- have become inseparable. The night before, Cole and Myers took Newman out for his birthday.
“I’ve been to his house, met his family several times, know his friend group even, and I've spent a good bit of time with them,” Myers said earlier in camp. “And we have talked about the fact that he grew up here, and how it's just different for him.
“He's kind of just living the Wisconsin kid’s dream. He played in Madison and then got drafted by the Packers. When you're talking about little kids in Wisconsin, that's as good as it gets.”
‘Mom, it’s the Packers'
Angie remembers watching the 2020 draft, and what stuck out was the Bears’ pick of tight end Cole Kmet, who grew up in the Chicago suburb of Lake Barrington.
“I remember thinking last year, ‘Oh my gosh, what a dream come true for that kid,’” she said.
Some in the Van Lanen house thought their chance at that dream had died on May 1 after the Packers picked Newman early on the final day of the 2021 draft.
“Cole did make the comment that, ‘Well there goes that dream,’ because they already drafted two linemen,” Angie said. “So Cole thought, ‘Well there’s no chance in hell now.’”
As player after player came off the board, things became tense -- so tense that Tom started cleaning up garbage that had accumulated during their watch party, and Cole went outside to get some air.
Not long after, Cole’s phone rang with a “Spam Likely” message on his caller ID.
“Somebody goes, ‘Ang he’s on the phone,’ and I went in and barged in on him,” Angie said. “Sure enough, it was me and Cole in this little room, and I could tell my kid was being drafted right in front of me. You could see the emotion and hear the excitement in his voice, and all of a sudden, he mouthed to me, ‘Mom, it’s the Packers.’ That’s when I lost it. I’m hugging him.”
“Someone came and told me Cole was on the phone with the Packers, so I cleared the entire stairs in two jumps,” Tom said.
‘PackerOLMom’
The same lower level in the Van Lanen house where they watched the draft is now Cole’s home.
The Packers haven’t used the dorms at St. Norbert College like they would for a normal training camp because of the pandemic. Players are free to stay wherever they like, meaning Cole might be the only player in an NFL training camp who’s living in his parents' basement.
If anyone can come close to understanding what it’s like for Cole to be here, it’s his position coach. Packers offensive line coach Adam Stenavich grew up in Marshfield, Wisconsin, and as an undrafted free agent, he got a shot to play for the Packers in the 2007 training camp.
But growing up two hours from Green Bay isn’t the same as being from here.
"He played in Madison and then got drafted by the Packers. When you're talking about little kids in Wisconsin, that's as good as it gets." Josh Myers
“Growing up two hours down the road, it’s pretty cool,” Stenavich said. “But to be living in the same town, that’s got to be pretty amazing. He seems to have a much better head on his shoulders than I did at that age, so I’m sure he’ll be just fine.”
After the practice against the Jets, Cole hops on one of the bikes that players ride to and from practice. He keeps scanning the landscape for his family.
“Normally we meet after practice on the other field, but the Jets are over there now,” Cole says.
So Cole heads for the parking lot instead. That’s where the Traverse is located, and if things work out the way the Van Lanens are hoping, that car could feature a new conversation piece before long.
“I want to get ‘PackerOLMom’ on my license plate,” Angie said.