Micah Hyde’s small-town roots have come up big for the Packers

He comes from a city of crisscrossing trains and tracks, one where job-providing auto parts plants closed and made life harder. Fostoria, Ohio has been billed as “A Small Town in the Middle of Everywhere,” but for Green Bay Packers safety Micah Hyde, it’s just home. It’s roots.

This is where his competitive spirit was carved, as early as 5 years old when he watched his hometown high school football team battle rival Fremont and idol Charles Woodson. Fostoria is where Hyde, in middle school, would join the varsity basketball team for 5:45 a.m. practices just to compete, to watch, to grow. His Fostoria days later became football in the morning, basketball in the afternoon, travel baseball in the evening, and soccer wherever it fit in. He was a quarterback, but even then, he could play nearly any position his coach wanted. He was willing.

Little wonder that is the makeup of Micah Hyde with the Green Bay Packers. The coaches ask. He gives. He has returned punts this season and played at safety, cornerback, and in the slot against receivers. He has four interceptions in his last six games.

His third-quarter pick last Sunday against Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott was the only Packers defensive stop in the Cowboys’ final six possessions. It came at the Green Bay 19-yard line. He read the play, jumped the route, and killed a Dallas scoring chance that made a huge impact in the Packers’ 34-31, final-seconds playoff victory.

At 6’0, 197 pounds, his alertness, instincts, and versatility in the secondary are becoming prominent.

In the NFC Championship on Sunday in Atlanta, quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan are expected to fill the Georgia Dome with an array of piercing passes. Both teams are expected to score a pile of points.

But somewhere in there, expect Hyde to get his hands on the ball.

“Growing up in Fostoria, it wasn’t about X-Boxes or PlayStations, we all were out playing ball whether it was rain or snow,” Hyde said. “As a quarterback, I always had the ball in my hands. As a defensive back, you’ve got to work a little harder for it. But when a ball is in the air, I’m confident I can get it. The Falcons have offensive players all over the place who can make plays, who can take the top off. But we’re looking to put something together for them this week.”

Hyde plans to be in the middle of it, everywhere.

He’s a fourth-year pro who turned 26 on New Year’s Eve. He played at Iowa.

Packers head coach Mike McCarthy describes Hyde as “the kind of guy that you go down to the rec center and he’s good at anything. He’d probably beat you at checkers.”

Dom Capers, the Packers defensive coordinator, told me Hyde “is a great pro and even a better person.”

In a season full of injuries and adversity, Hyde became a rock on which the Packers have built eight straight victories. In half of those, the Green Bay defense allowed 21 or fewer points and three times 13 or fewer.

“When we were 4-6, there was so much negative energy all around us,” Hyde said. “I can’t answer how we got to 4-6 or how we’ve won eight in a row. I was speechless about that then and pretty much am about what’s happened now. The only thing I can say about it is that there was belief, that there was recognition that we had dealt with so much adversity and it never stopped us from fighting. And if we just kept fighting, good things could happen.

“That’s just the way I grew up from a small town, working for everything you earned, making a name for yourself,” Hyde said. “I was called a two-star athlete coming out of high school. I was a fifth-round draft pick. Some people back home that I played ball with are shocked at the player I’ve worked to become. I’ve always kind of been on the back end and had to earn my position.”

He calls it the Fostoria way.

When Rodgers talks about this Packers team being more hungry, more vigilant, more willing to sacrifice, he is talking about players like Micah Hyde.

Three seasons ago in the playoffs, Green Bay lost a Wild Card game by three points to San Francisco. Two seasons ago in the playoffs, it lost the NFC Championship by six points to Seattle. In last year’s playoffs, it lost in the Divisional round by six points in overtime to Arizona.

Each of those games and this one against the Falcons align with Hyde’s NFL career from start to present.

“When you enter the league and lose playoff games like that, it leaves such an empty feeling,” Hyde said. “You feel like you’re just walking away with nothing. Here in Green Bay, every day, as players you see the banners, the trophies of champions. Young players are expected to develop but play right away when called. Everyone is expected to fight for championships. You put my three playoff experiences with that, and I’m just hungry. I think you see a team that is.”

Winning in Atlanta is the only road to Super Bowl 51 for Hyde, for the Packers. Two more victories and Hyde will have something to share.

“I had good people, great people at Iowa,” Hyde said. “The people of Fostoria have been with me win or lose. They are good people, great people. I just picture in my mind sometimes going back there one day with a Super Bowl ring. I’d share it with everybody. The ring would be mine and I’d cherish it, but it would be all of Fostoria’s, too.”