'I'm also gonna protect our home': Packers fan recalls blocking Bears players from doing Lambeau Leap
OSHKOSH, Wis. (CBS 58) -- All Gigi Michele knows is going to Green Bay Packers games. Her family has had season tickets for more than 30 years, and while she was raised in Oshkosh, Michele said her family's roots in Brookfield led to their current seats right behind the end zone.
"When all the season ticket holders for the Milwaukee games got put into the lottery here for the Green Bay tickets [after the team stopped playing part of their home schedule in Milwaukee in 1994], my grandpa was lucky enough to get three seats right in the front," she explained.
Those front row seats turned out to be Michele's ticket to a bit of fame this week. She was in the in the middle of viral images and videos that circulated after the Chicago Bears upset the Packers, 24-22, Sunday at Lambeau Field.
A then-8-year-old Gigi Michele and her mom attend a Packers game in their family's longtime season tickets behind the end zone at Lambeau Field.
After the Bears won on a field goal as time expired, many of the jubilant visitors ran toward the stands. Several Bears players attempted to 'Lambeau Leap,' and Michele said she felt Bears linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga was about to jump right into her mom, who was standing to her right.
"One of them jumped straight into my mom, so I was like, 'That's my protective mode,'" Michele said. "I'm like, 'I'm protecting my mom, but I'm also gonna protect our home, Lambeau Field.' Because that's my home too, right?"
Michele described what happened next as a 'heated exchange.' Video recorded by CBS 58 sports reporter Scott Grodsky showed Michele pushing both Ogbongbemiga and Bears offensive lineman Kiran Amegadjie as they climbed the wall separating fans from the field.
"At one point, I got hit with a helmet, and people are just getting hit with the players and they were not saying nice things at all when they were jumping," Michele said. "[Ogbongbemiga] was climbing up, and he was looking at me. He's like, 'I'm gonna get up in the stands. You can't push me down,' and I was like, 'Get the f*** down,' so I was screaming at him and everything."
Michele's aggressive defense of the Lambeau Leap wasn't the first time a Packers fan got attention for protecting the Green Bay tradition. A fan was warned earlier this season, but not ejected, after he shoved Houston Texans running back Joe Mixon during an attempted leap in September.
Still, Michele got the attention of LeRoy Butler, the hall of fame safety who invented the leap after a touchdown in 1993.
"Leap, it's in my DNA," Butler told CBS 58 Friday. "I have Leap spirits - Leap Vodka. I have a cooking show called "Leaping Into the Kitchen.'"
Butler said he planned to send Michele and her mom an autographed jersey as gesture of thanks.
Videos of the postgame pushing also captured Bears rookie wide receiver Rome Odunze pointing directly at Michele, who points back at Odunze as the two exchanged words.
"He came up and pointed right at me," she said. "He's like, 'I'm gonna call the cops on you. You can't touch us,' all this other stuff, and I was like, 'Go ahead and call them.'"
Butler laughed when he heard Michele's version of the exchange with Odunze. He said the young receiver has a lot to learn about the rivalry, and specifically, playing at Lambeau Field.
"How could you get her arrested, and you're jumping at her?" Butler said. "It don't make sense, but he's a rookie. He don't really know what's going on."
As for Michele's newfound fame, she said she suspected her face would be showing up in videos and pictures as soon as the confrontation happened.
Michele is somewhat used to being in the spotlight; she is also a model, and she's walked the runway in Paris during Fashion Week. Currently, she's freshman at Arizona State University and is studying journalism. She noticed the cameras that had followed the players toward the stands.
Gigi Michele is used to the spotlight since she's also a model. However, the viral attention this week is unlike anything she's experienced.
"Being in the journalism field and being on social media my whole life and being in front of the camera, I'm like, 'Yeah, this is gonna go [viral]," she said. "Something's gonna happen with this."
Michele said her career goal is to one be a sideline reporter during high-profile football games. In the present, she says there are no hard feelings on her end about the postgame confrontation.
"I know a lot of players said some things they probably didn't mean, either, so I have no ill intent against them," she said. "But it was definitely a heated moment."
After all, a lifelong Packers fan can truly understand and appreciate the emotion in this rivalry. It's why Michele was sure to still get in one last jab.
"I get how exciting it was for the Bears," she said. "This is their Super Bowl, it's the closest they're gonna get, probably."