I had a simply unbelievable experience at the NFL Draft in Green Bay. From 1992-2015, I went to almost every single NFL draft at Radio City Music Hall, but in 2015 the draft began going to cities around the country. Last year in Detroit was my first non-New York draft.

I flew to Green Bay from West Palm through Chicago into the Appleton, Wisconsin Airport. Small town hospitality cannot begin to describe landing in Appleton as the “host ambassadors” offered to carry my bags, talked about the annual air show (the largest in the world), and had free shuttles for the 30-minute drive to Green Bay. Green Bay is just like a zillion small towns in the USA, except it is the only one with an NFL team.

Think of large cities like San Antonio/Austin, San Diego, St. Louis, Columbus, Orlando, and Portland without teams, yet Green Bay, with just a population of 105,000 fans has one of the most valuable franchises. There are no tall buildings in the bucolic downtown, with the tallest building being Lambeau Field. The stadium is the oldest in the NFL (it opened in 1955) but has been completely renovated.

Lambeau Field is right in a neighborhood (like high school stadiums in many towns). I was given a great tour of the city by an elder of the Oneida Nation. Green Bay is surrounded by the large Oneida reservation lands.

My friend lives a few houses down from Aaron Rodgers’ house on the Thornbury Creek Golf Course. Aaron’s home is not in a gated community (it is not even on the golf course), and my friend said he was a great neighbor — Aaron would always come over to his house if he was having a barbecue. Green Bay has won, by far, the most championships in NFL history with nine pre-Super Bowl championships and four in the Super Bowl era and has the second most NFL Hall of Famers.

It seems like every single street and building is named after a Packer. The team is the only pro team in the USA that is community owned. I learned that the wealthy families in town, when they had a chance to buy the team, simply contributed money to keep the team operational, because they valued the community ownership.

Many stadiums have statues surrounding the stadium, but none have two as large as the ones for Vince Lombardi and Curly Lambeau. All around the stadium are “Packer Houses” that people use for just game day. Most are one- or two-room one-story buildings, but recently developers have built beautiful homes and apartments for a more upscale experience.

On one side of Lambeau Field are also enormous sports bars, and my friends and I went to Sports View (on Holmgren Way) Thursday night for the first part of the draft. Unlike Detroit, which seemed to have thousands of fans from all around the country and the New York drafts that had as many Dallas fans as Jets or Giants fans, most of the fans at the Green Bay draft were Packer fans. Commissioner Roger Goodell walked around and met the fans.

The entire Shedeur Sanders drama added excitement for the draft, as everyone waited to see which team picked him (Cleveland on Saturday). The night flew by like a blur and was capped off by a tremendous drone show over Lambeau Field. One of the highlights of the draft weekend was staying at the Residence Inn near Lambeau.

Almost everyone covering the draft from the ABC/ESPN side was staying at the hotel, and very few non-ESPN people were at the hotel. Even if a hotel lobby is not full of celebs, I prefer working in a hotel lobby over my room so I was front and center for all the action. Thursday morning, I was rushing down for breakfast, and I get into the elevator with the godfather of the NFL Draft, Mel Kiper Jr.

It was like on New Year’s Eve, going down the elevator with Dick Clark. I was talking to Mel about covering the draft for four decades. Later in the day I was talking to the GOAT, Nick Saban about how much I enjoyed the Penn State-Alabama series of games in Tuscaloosa and State College.

I said, “I love taking pictures at sporting events, and you probably don’t remember the moment, but one of the best pictures I ever took was of you, Bobby Bowden (who had just retired) and Joe Paterno meeting on the 50-yard line before the Penn State/Bama game in Bama in 2010.” He said, “Ira, not only do I remember the moment, but I have that picture hanging in my office on the wall right over my desk.” Desmond Howard is as fun and outgoing in person as he is on TV. And, yes, it is true Adam Schefter is always on his phone. Mike Greenberg, who I have listened to on the radio and watched on TV it seems my entire life, was super nice.

Even though being in front of millions talking about the draft is glamorous, all the reporters were working hard to present the draft to the public. I have never stayed in a fully booked hotel that was so quiet at night. I came away awed by the reporters’ professionalism.

To the last one, they were constantly thanking the hotel staff, drivers and delivery people for everything. In the future, I may disagree with an opinion or insight, but I will never question their professionalism and respect. Kaufman, an Altoona native and traveling sports fan, hosts IRA on Sports on trueoldiesfla.com on Monday night from 7-8 p.m.

It is available on Soundcloud & iTUNES, search Ira On Sports. His column appears occasionally in the Mirror.