GREEN BAY – Anticipation was building for Kapri Bibbs leading up to the 2007 NFC Championship Game, but there was still something missing for the 15-year-old Packers fan.

With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, the Packers hosted the New York Giants in one of the coldest playoff games in NFL history with a game-time temperature of minus-1 degree and wind chills of 23 below at Lambeau Field.

Bibbs, back home in Chicago, wanted to be a part of the action. He wanted to feel what the players felt. So Bibbs did the craziest thing imaginable. Instead of putting on one of his three Brett Favre jerseys, Bibbs turned off the heat in his house, opened the windows and sat shirtless in front of the living room television.

According to the Weather Underground, the temperature in Chicago on the night of Jan. 20, 2008, was six degrees.

Six. Degrees.

"I had my whole house mad," Bibbs said. "I sat in the front room with no T-shirt, just shorts on, and had the whole house freezing in the winter time. I'm like, 'All right, if the Packers gotta go through it, then I gotta go through it.' … Just come on with this cold. Go Packers."

Part superstition, part fanatical passion, these were the lengths Bibbs was willing to go for the team he loved at that age. His mom, Stacey Griffin, was raised a Packers fan and passed on that love to her child, dressing Bibbs up in Packers coats, hats and apparel at a young age. Growing up in Chicago, it occasionally complicated Bibbs' 1½-mile walk to school every day, but he didn't mind.

All of those memories rushed back to the surface this past week when the Packers claimed Bibbs off waivers from Washington. While surprised to hear he'd been released after registering 203 total yards and four touchdowns on just 33 touches, Bibbs isn't new to the NFL, having spent parts of the past five seasons with Denver and Washington.

Whatever initial disappointment accompanied the news, however, was quickly absolved when Bibbs' phone rang from a Wisconsin number at 4:09 p.m. Monday, shortly after the NFL waiver wire posted. It was Packers scout Richmond Williams on the other side of the line, informing Bibbs his NFL dream had just come true. He was a Green Bay Packer.

Bibbs intended to call his mother to tell her the good news, but she beat him to it.

"She called me on FaceTime and she stared at me for like 10 minutes," said Bibbs, laughing. "She just called me and started staring at me. I kept smirking and she's waiting for me to respond like, 'You can't be serious? Green Bay Packers?' I'm like, 'Green Bay Packers' and the whole car started blowing up, everybody started going crazy in the car. She said, 'This is what you asked for. This is the team you always wanted to go to.'"