Donald Driver Wins Dancing With the Stars

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver and his partner Peta Murgatroyd won Season 14 of Dancing With the Stars on May 22nd.  Driver had been hanging on behind the leaders for most of the weeks of the competition, never quite good enough to convince judge Len Goodman that he earned a 10.  That changed with the freestyle on May 21st, and driver and Murgatroyd finally get a perfect score.

It was a wash in the finally night of competition as all three finalists had perfect scores in their final dances of the competition.  But the judges scores count only half, the rest is made from phone, text, and online voting by the fans.  Packer fans should not be underestimated in terms of loyalty to the team and its players, especially with one as popular as Driver.  That made the difference, and Driver became the third pro football player to win (along with Emmitt Smith and  Hines Ward).

For those wondering why no Packers were in the audience for the finale, the answer is that the team began off season OTAs (organized team activities in NFL speak) in Green Bay.  Driver’s future is uncertain in Green Bay, but coach Mike McCarthy said in his remarks to the press after the opening practice session that he expected Driver to win the competition and that he assumed he’d report to OTAs next week.  It would be pretty hard to cut Driver after all this, but stranger things have happened.  Even some sports bars in Wisconsin were switching TV stations over to DWTS, so it was kind of a big deal.

Incidentally, a Wisconsin TV station covering the opening of OTAs did an informal survey of Packers players to see who the best dancer on the team was.  Turns out that the winner was not Driver; instead, backup defensive back and special teams player Jarrett Bush was the players’ choice.