College football tailgates and Packers games are built on a simple equation in Wisconsin: the game is the reason, and the drinking is the glue. Coolers of beer, shared flasks, pregame rounds that stretch for hours, and the assumption that everyone is participating. For people who do not drink—whether they are in recovery, choosing sobriety for any reason, or simply not interested—the environment is not neutral. It is loud, continuous, and often treated as the only legitimate way to show up.

The difficulty is not usually one dramatic moment. It is the accumulation of small ones. The offer of a beer that has to be declined again. The look that follows when the answer is no. The sense that the conversation has already moved on without you, or that your presence needs an explanation. Tailgates can feel like the entire social contract of the day is written in alcohol, and opting out can leave a person standing at the edge of the group even while they are physically in the middle of it. Inside the stadium the same pattern continues: vendors, chants, and the fourth-quarter culture that still treats a drink as the default way to mark the moment. Choosing not to participate does not remove the love of the team or the desire to be there. It simply removes the chemical that many people treat as required for belonging.

That tension is real, and it is not solved by pretending the culture is lighter than it is. Wisconsin’s drinking norms around college football and the Packers are not subtle. They are local identity as much as they are personal habit. Walking into that setting with a clear boundary can feel like arriving at a party where the dress code is mandatory and you showed up in something else. The isolation is practical as well as social. Friends may mean well when they say “just one” or “you can have one and still be fine.” The person who has already decided the cost is too high still has to carry the decision alone in the moment.

There are places where the assumption is different. At UW-Madison, Badger Recovery offers support and connection for students in recovery from substance use and other addictive behaviors. The program includes peer-led meetings, recovery coaching, and sober social events, including substance-free tailgates. It exists because campus culture can be recovery-hostile, and because students need spaces where the default is not drinking. The presence of that community does not eliminate the larger party culture, but it makes the choice to stay clear-headed less solitary. Students can still go to games and events; they do not have to treat the entire experience as off-limits.

At Lambeau Field, Section Yellow does similar work for Packers fans. What began as a small sober support presence near the concourse has grown into a visible community of people who want to watch the game without alcohol. Volunteers staff tables, yellow balloons go up in the fourth quarter (when alcohol sales stop), and the message is straightforward: there is room here for people who are not drinking. The group welcomes those in recovery, those who are sober-curious, and their allies. It does not require anyone to explain their reasons. It simply creates a pocket where the assumption is different.

These groups do not change the broader culture overnight. Tailgates will still be centered on drinking. Stadiums will still sell beer. The difference is that the person who has chosen not to drink no longer has to invent the entire alternative alone. They can arrive knowing that other people have already decided the game is worth watching without the drink, and that those people are willing to stand in the same spaces. The choice remains individual. The isolation does not have to be.

Showing up at a Badgers tailgate or a Packers game without alcohol is still harder than the culture admits. It requires managing other people’s expectations, managing one’s own reactions to the constant presence of drinking, and deciding in advance how the day will go. It is also possible. The existence of Badger Recovery and Section Yellow is evidence that other people have already done the same calculation and are willing to do it in public. That does not make the environments easy. It makes the decision to remain clear-headed a little less lonely, and the game itself still available.