The Green Bay Packers are Super Bowl champions...and big supporters of bicycling. For the last 50 summers, Packers players have ridden local kids bikes between their clubhouse in iconic Lambeau Field and the practice field a few hundred yards east.

This year, in conjunction with their annual Family Night Celebration, the Packers invited Bikes Belong's Peopleforbikes.org to connect with this pre-season ritual.

On August 5-6, we staffed a booth outside the stadium, collected more than 1,000 pledges for our unifying campaign, and talked with thousands of Packers fans about bicycling.

On Friday night, Packers players walked up a ramp from the locker room and greeted an enthusiastic swarm of local children, all ready with their bikes.

Each player pointed to a kid, grabbed their bike, and rolled off with the kid on the back or alongside.

We're not sure that any of these bikes were built with 250-pound linebackers or massive 350-pound linemen in mind. But the rides unfolded beautifully with big smiles all around. Football stars are great "roll models" for young bike riders.

Thanks to long-time Bikes Belong member Saris Cycling and president Chris Fortune for making this event happen. Thanks, too, to the Packers and team president Mark Murphy for their enthusiastic support.