The phone rang well after midnight in the Sports department. It was January 2008, and the Giants had beaten the Packers in overtime in the N.F.C. championship game.

A Packers fan was on the line, calling from a bar, after having had a few.

But he wasn’t angry. He was calling to congratulate the Giants and Giants fans. He said the Giants had won fair and square, had won the line of scrimmage, and on behalf of friends at the bar and of Packers fans, he wanted to wish the team well.

(He made a joke about not being so kind if the Vikings had beaten the Packers.)

Nothing like that phone call had happened in my time in our office and hasn’t happened since.

But it was in keeping with the spirit of that week. Packers fans had been writing to The Fifth Down praising the Giants. Yes, some of that good will could have been explained by the Giants’ upset victory at top-seeded Dallas the week before. The outcome had meant a home playoff game for Green Bay and a boost for the local economy. But the outreach in hospitality continued through the week and into game day:

A Wisconsin resident wrote in to suggest some travel tips for Giants fans.

I haven’t noticed GB in any of the NY Times travel sections recently, so this seemed like a good place to make some recommendations to out-of-town Giants fans. The places on Oneida Street will just be your run-of-the-mill chain restaurants, the sports bars on Holmgren are mostly indistinguishable from any other places around the country. Brett Favre’s steakhouse is worth a peek, but try and get to downtown Green Bay to see some of the more traditional places. Al’s Hamburgers, the Stein, the South End Pub, St. Brendan’s Inn, and the Bull and Bear in the Bellin building are all worthy stops all within a block of one another. In Allouez, the Lorelei on Webster has great German food, and the Union Hotel in East DePere has a bar and restaurant that looks unchanged from 100 years ago. For those in town on Friday, there are well over 100 bars and restaurants that serve a traditional Wisconsin fish fry for around $10 or less. Cabs are cheap and parking is plentiful and free.

A Giants fan later wrote a blog post for the Fifth Down about his spontaneous decision to travel to Green Bay with his daughter:

The people of Green Bay were absolutely the finest. They were very welcoming. They spoke with us and wanted to know from where we came. There was a degree of respect for two fans who were here for the simple reason of our football team. The day was cold. Very cold. We were prepared with our gear. Packer fans to the left and right of us offered heat packs and told us where to go to escape the cold for a break. We stood shoulder to shoulder with them and never took a break.

Extra point In 2008, the University of Cambridge released a study in which Wisconsin was determined to be one of America’s friendliest states. The study was based on data from 619,000 Americans who completed online questions over six years. Wisconsin was near the top in two of five categories: second in extroversion and fifth in agreeableness. (New Jerseyans were stressed out). I’ve never been to Wisconsin, so help me out: Is Wisconsin as nice as it seems?