1990-1999 | Return to Glory

every time you turn around in green bay wisconsin you bump into the history of the national football league i was just fortunate enough to come to god's team to green bay packers the ground that we're walking on was paved by men who believed who fought who's great the story always was you can't win in green bay i just wanted to play football and what better place to play it shocked people that little green bay all at once was it was a power again i don't think anybody saw that coming we breathe breath back into the crown jewel of the national football league the green bay packers gentlemen this is the most important play we have the way we must make those [Applause] [Music] [Music] this was a franchise that was mired in mediocrity fans would call me and say you know bob i'm not sure we'll ever win another championship and i worry that the league is getting too big for little green bay green bay is relatively speaking it's a small town you know in a big town business this is a franchise that was going on a quarter century now of basically falling out of relevance and not being anywhere close to championship the business was changing and i think the packers would be the first to tell you they were slow to recognize it near the end of an ugly 1991 season with five games still remaining tom bratz is fired as the packers executive vice president of football operations bob harlan makes the call he took the bold steps that were necessary to shake this organization out of the doldrums he's a guy that recognized that what was being done wasn't working just high level incompetence at the very top of the organization he took the bull by the horns changed that uh mindset and changed the structure of the organization these are brilliant successful businessmen but none of them are any football people it's like asking somebody who runs a hardware store to go run a hospital bob harlan's genius was saying we can't do it this way anymore we have to hire someone who knows how to pull off big trades who knows how to make great draft picks who can find the diamonds in the rough i call al davis and i tell him you know i'm going to have an opportunity to become the general manager of the packers i said ron i'm going to offer you this job and i said i'm going to talk to you until you say yes i was hired by the green bay packers around thanksgiving in 1991. the executive committee and the board of directors will have absolutely nothing to do with football decisions in the future that's the only way i got ron wolfe i knew if i didn't give him that authority we didn't have a prayer in the world of hiring him what brought me here was the opportunity i couldn't get my name on that contract fast enough at the time the team is three and nine and will miss the playoffs for the 22nd time in 24 years i want him to come in and live with this team he worked for al davis for a lot of years with the raiders and he was trained from a very young age how to evaluate talent i want you to look at this team and come and tell me what's wrong with it why don't we win it was not a good situation here i wanted to bring players in to test them to see how good they were the head coach didn't want to do that so i could tell that this isn't going to work lyndon fonte was in a lot of trouble and ron was going to go after a new head coach he had a lot of self-trust in his preparation to pull the trigger and make some tough decisions just a month into his new job as the packers general manager ron wolf fires coach lyndian fonte in his four years as head coach infante compiles a 24 and 40 record lindy really spent a lot of time teaching me how to become a professional quarterback and not just a you know guy who ran around make plays i owe a lot to him for my development lindy was an old school coach that believed in discipline and doing things the right way and it's his rules that's it but within that you get a chance to be yourself and be a man before wolfe sets out to find a new coach he is determined to reset the narrative surrounding the green bay packers when i was playing football this is where you went to die coaches would say you're going to send you to green bay it was very important to me to get our guys to understand that this isn't siberia ron wolf came in and took over a situation that was in need of someone to say we're going to turn this around we started a tradition here of taking advantage of the true history of the green bay packers one of the things that these guys did they reached out to the old packers and they invited us back as honorary gaps we embraced the tradition of the game the tradition of the green bay packers we we made that a positive not a negative in the locker room you see bart steir and you know ray netsky and you know all the history dave robinson and max mcgee you just get goose bumps ron wolf did exactly what vince lombardi did he changed the culture he changed the environment and he made it a winner his decisions he would make he would consult the people that were going to be affected too he listened but when he made his decision he stuck with it you don't like to say this but he cleaned house and he started with his people wolf knows exactly how he wants the packers head coach lineage to proceed everybody thought bill parcells dig for meal all these guys gonna be our coaches i was gonna hire my buddy bill parcell there's no question about that i offered him the job but he couldn't do it he needed an open heart surgery and he told me that wolfe convinces mike holmgren to cast his lot with the woe begone packards mike holmgren whom i did not know uh i was doing one heck of a job as the offensive coordinator with san francisco and mike holmgren was the hottest thing in the league at that time it was like the girl with the curl everybody wanted him he was a very football savvy guy there was other teams looking at him you know i thought there's no way we're going to get him but let's go chase it we've been disappointed so many times before by the so-called savior coming in that it's kind of like at that point okay we'll wait and see this is the team that hadn't had a good coach since lombardi that was a quarter of a century i interviewed at green bay first and if you continue interviewing oftentimes that job gets fulfilled i said i've got these other interviews and he said go ahead and i'll keep this for you and i hope it works and i was in a dilemma because i really didn't have a backup so i was gonna have to go back to work pursued by no fewer than six nfl teams holmgren signs a five-year contract as the 11th head coach for green bay i had been there about a month i'm in the market and i've got a little cart and i'm getting some stuff going down the aisle and i see about 40 feet away a little old lady just looking over the edge of her car coming at me it looks like reminds my grandma and i'm i kind of moved to the right and she moves over there i move over here she moves over so pretty soon she's not gonna let me buy she's not so we our carts go bang and she just looks to me and goes you're the new coach i said yes i am ma'am she goes hey california let's kick some butt i'm sure ron wolf told him about this team's history and how long it had been since the glory years i saw him on a tradition one of the green bay packers it was the kind of place where if you succeed here they're going to name a street after you it's his show to run i'm not going to interfere with anything he does as far as coaching is concerned that is the big thing between a general manager and a coach to be able to work together and i suppose there's an attraction to going where it's a reclamation project where there's nowhere to go but up with ron and mike holmgren that was a couple of pretty good guys to try to fix it i can remember covering mike holmgren's introductory press conference and even asking him the question that okay you had all this success with the west coast offense in sunny california how are you going to do in the midwest in the cold of december and he didn't bat an eyelash he believed that they were going to win here mike holmgren hired a wonderful staff of assistant coaches yeah their young guys like andy reid was my assistant line coach he coached the tight ends john gruden came in as a quality control he brought in ray rhodes and fritz shermer sherm lewis on the offensive side ray rhodes on the defensive side their success with the 49ers working with mike homgrim there certainly added up to success here and then dick geron had been here and he was a good defensive coach bob valesceni greg blasch and steve mariucci the mooch that's the mark of a great head coach not only putting in your system and calling plays but hiring a coaching staff and training your staff the formula of coaches that he put together name after name that are now in nfl uh they're nfl leaders now but i always looked for teachers and and people that could communicate with the player they've been monster makers of of great professional athletes along the way but it doesn't really matter how much you know it's what you can communicate to that player and get him to understand everything was tailored toward winning and that's that was the mindset you could make a case that that coaching staff he had in the early years was the best coaching staff in nfl history i said to mike holmgren one time with all the offers you had why did you pick green bay i mean we hadn't won there was nothing to indicate we were going to be successful why did you come here one of the reasons i came to green bay was because of ron he said i knew ron would get me the players even before the signing of homegrown ron wolf has his eye on a prize atlanta has selected brett favre quarterback southern mississippi an unknown player wolf becomes reacquainted with at a game in atlanta december 1st 1991. i go up to the press box and i'm i'm hungry i want a hot dog ron comes in about half hour 45 minutes before kickoffs puts his briefcase down next to me says bob i'm gonna go watch atlanta's backup quarterback throw and the guy i worked with for a number of years came up to me and said you got to go down and watch him now because when the team comes out they won't let him throw he said if his arm is as strong now as it was coming out of college we're going after him so right away i'm thinking to myself wow i got a chance to get the player that i thought was the best player in the 1991 draft the first thing i do is take my flip card and find out who the heck is the backup quarterback for the atlanta falcons and i thought it was a guy named favre i start to go down to the field to watch him i never get there because i'm surrounded by green bay and milwaukee tv stations that want to ask me questions so i go back up and eat my hot dog ron comes back in about a half an hour and he says we're gonna make a trade for brett favre are you okay with that just set blunt i've often wondered what he thought about that conversation you know he's thinking geez i just hired you and you want to you want to bring a quarterback in they can't even can't even get dressed for the atlanta falcons anyway ron brings me the name of a player to watch this is in 1992. january ron wolfe told mike holmgren that this was the guy that he wanted holmgren knew brett favre because of the draft workout i had conducted brett's college workout at his school in southern miss watched it i came back i said there it is and he goes well what'd you think i said i think he's pretty good ron said what do you think i said well let me go get my report outstanding physical traits just what you want great personality what do you think i said what do you think because i wasn't going to get into that conversation that early in my career the negative of the question mark was will he be disciplined enough in my offense because he's kind of a gunslinger ron said about brett favre when when brett ran on the field the field tilted in that direction and that was just his way of saying i knew in my heart that this was what it was all about the packers acquired second year quarterback brett favre in a trade with atlanta they give up a first-round draft pick for a kid who is riding the bench trade your number one draft choice for a quarterback nobody heard of can't even pronounce his name who is this he traded a first round pick for this guy and never played the mail i got saying first of all who's this wolf guy you hired and who's this quarterback we just picked up the last on the depth chart no one knows who i am i didn't get along very well with jerry glanville um i didn't play uh i think i might have played four or five plays it was a gamble for a guy picked in the second round a year before who had by his own admission drank himself out of atlanta what i had done basically was drink a lot of beer eat a lot of hot wings and that was about it only ron wolf would have had the gumption to do that he was very decisive you know very confident in his decision making um and it was not was not afraid to take a risk i was so excited the day we made the trade for brett favre i thought surely atlanta is going to back out of this so i didn't put any conditions in the deal the thing that made the trade possible was because ron believed in him when that guy took the field his team had a better chance of winning well guess what happened brett favre comes here and doesn't pass the physical he took about as big a risk as you could possibly take when he made the trade for brett favre dr mckenzie who's still to this day the packers orthopedic surgeon said that's not going to be a problem he's going to play three or four years so out here three or four years that's great you know the deal's on you know we're going to keep him i understood my situation being hurt and they needed some type of insurance policy and a form of another quarterback this is the best player in the 1991 draft no question about it and i've got it i remember talking to him in training camp and thinking i don't know i mean don makowski still was the starter at that point and you didn't necessarily think from day one this guy is going to be a legend i knew right away that this was the right place all that really mattered here was football and that's really all i was here for we needed a tough dynamic stud to set the tone for this organization ron wolf deserves a lot of credit it turned out to be the greatest trade in pro football history former nfl passing leader and pro bowl quarterback don makowsky starts the 92 season following back-to-back losses green bay meets the bengals in week three at lambeau field they jumped out to lead right away i was standing on the sidelines and i said to myself you know you're going to be the shortest tenured head coach ever in the national football league i don't think we can win a game and then don got hurt halfway through the first quarter makowski goes out with an ankle injury injuries occur it's one of them what ifs you know there's no regret because i gave everything i had i prepared as hard as i could and you just can't you can't avoid certain injuries i prepared as well as i could up to that point considering i was not the starting quarterback you know you you're drifting off and daydreaming and uh it's hard to focus in on what you're doing and and what you need to do in case your turn comes well my turn came here's second-year quarterback brett favre by the southern mississippi by way of the atlanta falcons he cost the packers a first-round draft choice they are hopeful he can succeed in the nfl hogg completes in the flat to sterling sharp and sharp i was making changes at the offensive line to the offensive line to other guys that were the wrong changes i was scrambling when i should have been sitting in the pocket you know you have different places new guys come in a week in the week out you're just changing the roster and try to make the chemistry of the green bay packers work together and you know income's bread it was chaos at its best with little more than one minute remaining green bay trails cincinnati 23-17 brooks takes the kickoff and steps out of bounds it's like 92 yards to go very bad play by robert brooks who just elected to catch a kick in bounds and then step out of bounds with it at the eight yard line if he lets it go they are in much better field position i was able to do what i do best and that was especially at that time be more of a gunslinger 19 seconds on the clock [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and then he makes that pass to kitrick taylor that is unbelievable brett had an ungodly arm a lot of quarterbacks wouldn't even attempt it for him to attempt it and make it and the celebration afterwards will go down in history for its sheer significance and the innocence of the moment in lifting a perennial loser into an unlikely win it'd be hard-pressed to come up with a bigger pass that he threw in his career fans that probably forgot how much they loved the packers until brett favre showed up the legend began then the legend is he he forgot to go out and hold for the extra point because he was lost his helmet and was jumping on guys and he was having a blast i can assure you of that and don was hurt so brett had to hold we needed the p-a-t to win the game he's a tie he's running over me and goes uh i said you gotta go in there hold oh oh yeah that's right you know maybe that's a legends are born i don't know but of course you can't look excited you know you can't show your emotion baloney you can you can't show your emotions you remember exactly where you were when brett favre threw the pass to kitrick taylor it was certainly a defining moment that was our first win under mike holman then you just kind of knew you had something special there following the win with farv at the hell this is makowski's last game as the starting quarterback for the green bay packers it wasn't brett's fault that i got hurt he was just trying to do his job i just looked at it that way and just tried to be as professional as i could about it the next week we beat a good pittsburgh team and and then we stumbled around a little bit but they were learning you could see it it was happening the packers and their fans have hope again because they have brett favre they have mike holmgren they have ron wolf what they have in the nfl is credibility they have not had credibility in the nfl for almost 30 years wolf and holmgrim work tirelessly to perfect personnel teach a new system shore up talent and build a respectable and competitive team they came in from winning organizations that want to change things and uh and they did my focus was let's get the best players we can and let's find a way to win i'm not going to say we didn't have the players but we needed players that were in it to win it and not so much about a paycheck when i talked to mike about coming to green bay mike we're going to stir the pot we are going to keep changing the roster they went through so many personnel changes every week there were some transactions they changed out guys and they made it work they made the coaches they made it work these new guys coming in week in and week out if you didn't perform on sunday you were out the door on monday when i first came in i looked at the depth chart and i was so far down on that depth chart it raised some doubt as far as would i even be here well he took his time and he looked under every rock to find the right people that fit the program and look for ways to get better man it took me five years to realize just because ron wolfson practiced doesn't mean someone's job is at stake what ron always taught us was don't worry about all the stuff on the outside make worry about the football ron wolfe put together a very strong scouting staff many of whom have gone on to be general managers in the national football league let you do your job and expect you to do your job and it puts no boundaries on you so when you work for ron you understood that what's expected from you get it done and we're going to win he was a very intimidating and so was coach holmgren you know like you had to you had to be you had to be on your game he's a really good coach really good people person good judge of character discipline organized very organized knowledgeable you know he knows the game of football his system was fantastic players coach very intelligent there's this image that he liked to cultivate of this teddy bear likable guy and i can tell you in the practice field he could get on people and i think appropriately so and strike a little bit of fear of them it was going to be done the right way every single time it was all all about excellence i learned from coach holmgren [Music] be a star don't be average i don't want to coach average player be all pro pro bowler be famous play like him and ron wolf seemed to have the same personality fierce competitors they were tough they demanded more of everybody ron and i were exactly on the same page we kind of had a vision and we came together every day everything they did was towards winning he made you believe at least he made me believe we could actually beat everybody the packers finished the 92 season at 9-7 a far cry from a dismal 4 and 12 the previous year we had to start winning important games but you could see we were ascending team we realized what we had to do here would certainly elevate our play we had a young quarterback which is the pivotal piece for any team and now it's a matter of building and putting other pieces together through free agency coming coming into effect now there is a player that can really change the dynamic of the green bay packers the turning point was a game against the eagles at county stadium in 1992 brett favre got hurt but continued to play on the opposing eagles team that day was reggie white he was the great the greatest defensive player i've ever seen he saw the courage of favre he saw how good he was even playing hurt he could change an entire franchise from a defensive standpoint from his defensive ability in eight years with the eagles white had registered 124 sacks the second most in nfl history reggie sued the nfl to become a free agent and then was like look he's not going to come packers i don't think anybody gave us a prayer in the world to get reggie white in 1993 defensive end reggie white the most coveted player in the nfl's first year of true free agency agrees to a four-year 17 million dollar contract with the green bay packers when fragrance you started people would say nobody would ever come to green bay free agency supposed to be the thing that was going to kill little old green bay this was the start of the whisper guys in football and the whisper guys were calling me telling me that you know you're fourth these guys are ahead of you he was flying all over the country everybody was hiring bands and blowing up balloons and giving his wife fur coats he is in detroit [Music] on interview and he he tells his agent he's done he's not going to go to any more interviews we were starting to believe we had a chance you know because he hadn't signed with anybody mike reinfeldt who was a cfo convinced his father-in-law to be to fly reggie and his agent into green bay and guess what it's in a snowstorm ron and mike took him to red lobster for lunch our dining budget was very low in those days he has catfish he loves catfish and up here at that particular time as the red lobster if you ordered catfish it was not filleted so as part of the deal we told reggie white that if he sides with us we'll make sure that he gets filleted catfish at red lobster then they come back over to lambo and ron said to reggie walk down that ramp onto the field you can go anywhere he says you're already an icon in this league you come to green bay you're going to be a legend and reggie i know it was a fine christian man and he knew i went to church i phoned him and it's true i said i said reggie this is god i want you to go to green bay and then hung up the phone and hoping he wouldn't get offended reggie was the free agent everybody wanted and reggie said that god told him to come to green bay thank you god and then we had him signed and i still get that call and the whisper guys were telling me these guys are ahead of you and i wanted to scream into the phone no you son of a gun it wasn't son of a gun either no you son of a gun you signed with the packers you can be cynical and say well yeah he just chased the money at the time it was a lot of money a huge amount of money i don't care why he came he came and it made a big difference the one heck of a stepping so now now we have legitimacy in a sunday night game against denver white stuffs quarterback john elway on back-to-back plays his sacks come on third and fourth down in the final two minutes after the broncos reached the packers 43-yard line reg made those big plays right at the end and saved the game when he was cranked up he was unstoppable he had a hump move that was just a tremendous move you just take guys spin them around and go around the corner and knock the quarterback down different error then you could actually tackle the quarterback reggie white single-handedly pushes the broncos out of field goal range the packers prevail 30 to 27. when the game's on the line he's going to make those plays that are going to be the difference we were now a challenger in a late december game against the raiders well the day after christmas and it was just bitterly cold day one of the coldest games in packers history i'm from florida and i went over to the thermostat and i saw the number that i never thought i would see a minus next to a number right before kickoff the public address announcer announced the kickoff temperature and he said it's zero degrees and the crowd went wild went nuts i actually asked a few guys do they forfeit the game he was like what because oakland's coming from california it's too cold isn't it with the fumble that took place and leroy butler involved into play and then reggie getting the ball reggie white starts running up the field and laterals to leroy and leeway takes it all the way as i was running i pointed this guy and said i'm going to jump you're kind of like what is he doing he just jumped in the stands is born i throw the ball down and i jump up there and the fans went nuts he stakes claim for the lambo leap which has gotten to be pretty famous when you get the chance to do a lambo elite for the first time it's very nerve-wracking when you walk onto the field you realize how high that wall actually is [Music] just something i never forget and it's all for the fans when i looked at our team even down through the years we had at most four players who are worthy of the hall of fame roy butler is one of those players a tremendous teammate tremendous player crafty instinctive he has a premier safety of his error because he could do three things cover tackle and dog two weeks later with 55 seconds remaining they beat the lions on an impossible 40-yard touchdown pass from farve to sterling sharp if i were coaching i would i would never tell my quarterback not to make that throw because my quarterback would never make that throw and that's true why you would ever roll to your left and just blindly turn back and throw to your right it's beyond me not to mention how would you even know anyone would be there the packers win their first playoff game in 11 years the most stressful situations coaches are screaming and yelling he'd grab that light smile on his face what's funny is that when i call that play it was really the wrong play based on the situation i loved him you could rip him you could really go after him on columns and he didn't care he didn't love the way he played a happy-go-lucky guy when i drop back and i go to sling it to the left because i thought that's where sterling was and at that point in the game i didn't care if he was covered or not to be honest with you he would win at all costs how many points you were down in the fourth quarter he'd be out there slinging the ball around and trying to make things happen fortunately i was able to stop and realize that's not sterling and so i just kind of like a chicken with his head cut off kind of ran around and i said he's got to be on the other side so it kind of makes the the play even more like are you kidding me there's not many breaths in the world his was such a natural expression of his soul to play the game was was everything to him i had it all planned from the start not really he had more fun playing than anybody i've ever been around it was contagious that's probably what stood out more than anything else i think his love for the game his passion but then also making everyone around him better whether it's the kittrich taylor catch or sterling sharp catching a ball against detroit there were a couple of games there would just change things for us so proud of you i'm proud of the coaches the whole deal and now uh you know what we're down in dallas next week turning this franchise around and just bringing backpacker football to where it should be that's as far as they go for the 93 season after traveling to dallas the packers lose in a divisional playoff game against the cowboys in the 90s the packers were 109 against the cowboys that was our big bugaboo we always ended up playing in dallas and they were an astroturf team we were a grass team so that whole era the cowboys were a team the packers couldn't get past every time we'd lose to the cowboys i would change hotels i would tell the guy we're changing hotels well about the eighth time we're out in amarillo uh anybody that knows the geography is like 600 miles away you could see growth being made but you also wondered are they ever going to get past dallas the packers defense improves to number two having ranked 23rd the year before the only significant personnel change the unprecedented edition of reggie white reggie was a centerpiece you know when reggie talked people listened by far probably one of the greatest leaders i've ever been around um he had a unique way of reaching anyone and everyone every single person on this team we got to kick them tail let's kind of lose obviously his dominance on the field speaks for itself reggie white somebody was still hungry for his first super bowl who continuously told us how important it was to get a ring sitting 500 with two games remaining in the 94 season the packers play their final home game at milwaukee county stadium an aging baseball field i laid awake many nights thinking how do i leave there and not hurt people didn't want to forget the milwaukee fans that supported us all those years i don't think that fans around the country can understand how milwaukee fans feel about the packers once they find out what it's two hours away you know and you're still that loyal it's it's hard to explain we said to the people we're going to abandon the stadium but we're not going to abandon the fans i have never known anyone in sports more gifted with handling pr than bob harlan he let the milwaukee people that own season tickets get three games about green bay it was just an ingenious move on bob's part to make sure that they were taken care of with their season tickets come on along with us we just can't financially play those games anymore at county stadium 97 of the milwaukee ticket holders took the package he knew how to reach sports fans whether it was picking up his own phone in his office or whatever he just had the everyman touch people said to me what was the toughest decision you ever made it was leaving milwaukee quite honestly because the people in the stands and their parents and their grandparents had supported this franchise and saved this franchise for over 60 years he made a wise decision two league games and a pre-season game it was the right thing to do it was that simple it was the right thing to do now i really admire bob harlan for that in the week of the game two green bay policemen come to see me and they said bob uh the milwaukee police are concerned about your safety this weekend we're going to assign some policemen to you and your wife and with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter they want to take you out to your car and it's six minutes they i turn around there's three milwaukee policemen waiting for me so i get up and i go and i look and here comes my wife and she's got all these police look like we're all being arrested for being you know out of order in the final game in milwaukee farve lunges into the end zone following a 9-yard scramble with 14 seconds left on the clock he scores the winning touchdown beating atlanta 21-17 so actually i was out on highway 43 when brett dived into the end zone and i had to go home at night and watch it on television to see the highlights it was yet another glimpse of a chapter of the legend of brett favre the game-winning touchdown and the packers clinch a playoff spot it couldn't get any better than that as if saying thank you to the packers second home after 62 years having grown up in the milwaukee area it was a bittersweet moment and to this day i will have people from milwaukee saying thanks for remembering us you don't leave these people after what they and their families had gone through for this franchise for all those years there was this feeling like yes this is the end of something but there was such jubilation about how the game ended once again the packers go nine and seven setting up a wild card playoff game against the detroit lions 31st 1994 lambeau field a balmy 30 degrees the packers hold the great barry sanders to an astounding minus one yard rushing to defeat detroit 16 to 12. in 92 93 94 you could you could feel the momentum building all along first year we had a winning record the second year we you know we got the playoffs the third year we won a playoff game the season ends with a 35-9 loss in a divisional playoff game in dallas the packers are eliminated from the playoffs for the second consecutive year by the cowboys [Applause] the competition in the league is one of the great selling points of the nfl what makes a team great leadership in the office real strong coaches leaders as coaches and then first class players and over the years the backers for the most part have had that the 1995 season sees continued improvement determination and farv's trademark grit the guy was tough he was going to be there every single week snap and turtle tough you can run them over a thousand times as you get up and crawl to the side of the road and probably bite you when you go to pick it up in mid-november favre starts in his 56th consecutive game honestly had no idea about a starting streak nor did i care i did care about starting every week now there's a difference he left the previous game against minnesota on crutches and you you hoped he was going to play you knew he was tough and competitive when i tell people i love to play the game i did love to play the game i was also very aware that that would require playing with injury or playing hurt that was no problem to me he completes 25 of 33 passes five of which are touchdowns you knew when he was out on the field that he was going to give everything every ounce i was always well aware of how i got my job and how i kept it if he was on the field you had a chance to win the game the packers beat the bears 35-28 at lambeau he threw the five touchdown passes on an ankle that was swollen so big that people were wondering how he could even play not only did he last um he he said had a career-high five touchdown passes and led the packers to victory over the rival chicago bears love hate respect disregard the most storied rivalry in pro football nothing else comes close there's still nothing like packers bears just because of the history behind it my ten year heroes we were 15 and three against the bears and one of those three was in chicago and there's this lady as well dressed as you could possibly be dressed they were like like like you choked you know you lost the game so it's a heck of a rivalry goes in motion to the right here's a play action christmas eve 1995 no he's at the three maybe the one did he get in or not right over there what a rule he's right at the goal line they're gonna have to take a time out here and brett favre kneels down on one knee they'll take a timeout boy i'll tell you what he just hesitated a second too late and the blockers aaron taylor didn't know he was coming up behind him or aaron could have cleared a path for him bart will not come out of the game brett favre brings him back to the line of scrimmage and they start the 25 second clock it is third and goal of the one yard line if you're an offensive lineman right now you're thinking we got a block for this guy third down and goal at the one for the package here comes doris evans here's brett favre and brett rolling to the right he's going to run it into the end zone no way through it touchdown chamera he could have run it but he threw it instead to his buddy mark chamira into the end zone wide open and the packers score a big touch the packers win their first nfc central division title since 1972 sure-handed got the football and got the touchdown i'll tell you what mike holmgren and brett favre surprised everybody in this place you thought for sure brett's been hurt he's groggy they're going to hand off to somebody and they have him roll out and fire the ball i'll tell you you couldn't get brett favre out of there with a gun he wants to play pittsburgh probably should have won again we put a put a young fella in there to cover yancy thickpin and where he was on that play i don't remember laney mcgill who's a great player for us had slipped and fallen down in surprising fashion they beat the pittsburgh steelers 24-19 at lambeau field i just remember yancey running a good route being wide open so open it scares you wide open he drops the ball i couldn't believe it hackers won the division because thick pen dropped the ball that play yancey will never live down and he blames himself so much so wide open i don't think there's anybody within 20 yards in him yancy's got some of the best hands sure his hands that i know of any nfl receiver i just remember the ball hitting the ground and i knew we had a shot at the playoffs he was thinking more about his celebration dance than doing the fundamentals of catching the ball that's why it's a 60-minute game you got to play for 60 minutes it was the first division title for the packers since 72. bill cower who's a good friend of mine who is coach of the steelers after the game he goes congratulations i'm happy for you i go you don't know how happy i am thank you nancy think leroy butler kissed me live on television and he's the only man who's ever kissed me live on television to this day that's what i remember about yancey thickbin favre is named the nfl's mvp for the 1995 season he is the first packer player to win the award since bart starr was named mvp in 1966. [Music] january 6 1996. a divisional playoff game at the san francisco 49ers 3-com park they were really good and they had the first round by and they were favorites to win the super bowl linebacker wayne simmons sets the tone on defense brett favre completes 21 of 28 passes on offense the packers stunned the defending super bowl champions 27-17 now we're there we compete with these guys we won the football game on the road we can be good the packers advanced to the nfc championship game for the first time since the lombardi era when you run out on lambeau field you look up and you see those names up there well suddenly here they are those guys were in our locker rooms every year every day every game they could encouraging us they're standing in front of you telling you what the feeling is to be a part of this marvelous tradition though you won the last one it's so important to bring lombardi home bring pride back to green bay what it meant to wear that that that g to wear that green and gold what an honor to run out of that tunnel just follow in the footsteps of some of the greatest players in nfl history yet again for the third straight year the packers are eliminated from the playoffs by the cowboys in dallas i want to beat the cowboys to make it feel like i did something huge going to the playoffs that year in 1995 was the best thing for this football team because we really left dallas stadium knowing that we belong to make it there was fantastic a lot of people didn't know if we were going to make it san francisco is supposed to be that team we've been through so much in the previous three years you know losing the playoffs but everybody came back in shape ready confident believing that we could win from the start of that season we just felt like we were the team they had the top-ranked defense they had reggie white brett favre was at the peak of his powers i used to have to write an article for a magazine called the pack report i knew what would happen we dominated defensively brett favre threw the ball i mean i'd ride him before the game because i knew what would have we were that much better than everybody else with two games remaining in the 96 season we just had the mindset that it's time to take care of business the packers clinch's second consecutive nfc central division championship with a 41-6 victory over the denver broncos our goal was to continue to win for that purpose so it was just another game brett favre is again named the nfl's mvp by the associated press i don't care about the stats and all that stuff and those will be forgotten i want people to say man that guy laid it on the line he played with everything he had wasn't pretty all the time but it was it was completely devoted to his team and teammates i pinned my whole career with the green bay packers on brett favre and he didn't let me down january 4th 1997 the packers vanquished the five-time super bowl champion san francisco 49ers in a divisional playoff game at home then in the first championship game played at lambeau field since the ice bowl my happiest day at lambeau field was january 12th of 1997. we're playing the nfc championship game against carolina we'd have to go on a road throughout the place which is a big advantage to play home in green bay good morning everybody and welcome to lambeau field and it is the nfc championship game before a record-breaking crowd the packers dispose of the carolina panthers 30 to 13. they earned their first trip to the super bowl in 29 seasons the most exciting moment my lifetime of working in professional football to win a championship in green bay wisconsin in lambeau field it's a feeling i can never ever describe as i'm talking about it now goosebumps are running through my body i saw a grown man crying in the stands i wish my dad was here to see this i really can't describe to you what that feels like but what i can say is that it went by fast and i wish i would have savored the moment even more it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing to win the nfc championship game right here on lambeau field it was priceless that moment to see bob harlan and ron wolf and mike holmgren and brett favre on the victory stand and ron wolf talk about hey green bay guess where we're going i mean i still get chills thinking about it bob was fighting back tears and i was like man we did it just to be in this stadium and win that game and see what it meant to these fans it had been 29 years when i took the job a lot of people called me and told me i was an idiot to come up here this this place is dead and five years later we're on top of the world and the packers of 1996 were that great story the story is just so good and i was just fortunate to be a part of it unity coaching preparation execution you can be prepared you can have good coaching but if you don't execute none of that matters it gets very emotional when you see that trophy that you about to win it says lombardi on it you want to win that troll when we talk about winning it it wasn't a one-time thing it was an all the time thing you get an opportunity to play in the super bowl that's every kid's dream expectations were were high we were underdogs we were going to be the underdogs to surprise the world from the last gal on the bench to to brett favre everybody's important and that's what holmen focused us he said let's go win the damn game at the louisiana superdome in new orleans greatest memory was the audible and touchdown pass to andre rising now we got off to a good start you know that throw of brett's got us off and running what better stage to pull out your bag of tricks and it works favre throws touchdown passes of 54 and 81 yards to andre risen and antonio freeman i remember brett making the change at the line of scrimmage and basically one on one i was just a second year guy still young still wide-eyed and living a dream and i just knew that i had to beat one guy brett uncharacteristically gave me a floating ball to catch as opposed to the way he normally delivered his fastballs it's it's the ultimate and number one team sport in all of sports it really is you have to rely on each other way more than you do in any other sport i know it's the second longest in super bowl history but it's the longest for a winning super bowl's team so we need to make that a stat next thing you know here it comes open up the floodgates desmond howard takes over desmond howard returns a kickoff 99 yards for the game-clinching touchdown our special teams was phenomenal in that game i'm thinking to myself there's no way they're going to kick it to howard they did desmond was anytime you can get a touchdown from your special teams unit you can get limitless opportunities of great field position because of your return guy desmond howard who was definitely the x factor in the whole super bowl and look what happened game over the packers defeat the new england patriots 35-21 to win super bowl 31. if you get fortunate enough to get there and win you know it's something very very special to win a super bowl after so many years of a drought i just can't describe to you how that felt the flip side of it is it there is a tremendous amount of pressure expectations that go along with it and rightfully so it's a double-edged sword take the good with the bad and at the end of the day pinch yourself because it is a job that so many people would love to have when we were in the locker room after we won the super bowl game and i held up the trophy and i said this trophy means a lot but it means more to us than anybody anybody in the world and you and the people in green bay the people wisconsin yes it can happen and by job it did happen talking eugene robinson post scan we were looking at the trophy we're saying how disgusting it was the guys were kissing this thing and then we kissed it i gave my ring to my dad he's a man who taught me how to be a man so i felt he deserved in earning his super bowl ring reggie white sacks new england's quarterback drew bloodsow three times a super bowl record everybody wants to talk about our offensive unit but we had a defensive unit that was i think statistically will prove was better than the 85 bears defensive unity reggie white piled on a number of sacks late in the game to just really shut down everything that the new england patriots had going on offensively he was unbelievable reggie was special back in green bay 100 000 fans lined city streets and another 60 000 fans fill lambeau field to welcome home their world champion green bay packers we had put a fair amount of planning into it with respect to the stadium event returned to title town it was going to be a live tv event we heard the splatters of concern that the small town of green bay couldn't throw a an adequate ticker tape parade it was almost like i didn't know how to act because i'd never been in this situation where the team i was covering what at all we landed austin charlemont airport some of us were still wearing linen short sleeves and it's a cold cold day in green bay we were freezing it was colder than the dickens all these people are out gonna be a short tour short little parade we'll go through town we'll come back 15 minutes you'll be fine we've got this city of 100 000 people and you've got people that are driving across the state that want to be a part around three and a half hours later we're still riding still waving borrowing jackets mittens coats hand warmers hot chocolate anything we could to to stay warm came a moving sea of people that was something to behold by the time we got into lambeau field people tell me that that i sounded like i was inebriated i wasn't a neighbor yet i was frozen 1997 lambeau field hallowed ground to players and fans but at 40 years old it's tired and outdated the stadium is in need of an update every time a team in the nfl moved into a new stadium it jumped ahead of the packers in revenue harlan brings his proposal for the fourth stock sale in team history to the nfl and they're looking at me like are you in a dream world the problem with the owners is they think you're going to use this money for personnel i said we will account for every penny of the stock sale dan rooney the owner of the pittsburgh steelers stood up when i was finished he said the green bay packers are very important to this league they've got a major project they want to start i think it's up to this group to give them our unanimous support and let them proceed with their stadium well the packers history is really one of the great pieces of nfl history the way they've been able to survive coming from a small town to this day it's really a unique setup in terms of a franchise being owned by the fans the stock sale raises 24 million dollars and gives 120 000 fans the chance to become shareholders after much consideration to the future of lambeau field these funds go toward the 295 million dollar redevelopment that begins in two thousand within that is this desire to be a good community partner i mean we are stewards of this special place the 1997 season also proves successful and earns the packers their second straight nfc championship and brett favre's third mvp title richie shares with lions running back barry sanders we were very high going into that year we really were like everybody else you're hoping to be able to repeat january 11 1998. in the championship game at san francisco running back dorsey levins rushes for 114 yards the packers win with a 23-10 victory over the 49ers it's another trip to the super bowl the expectations placed upon the packers were tremendous fans thought a second super bowl was going to be a piece of cake this time however the packers fall to the broncos 31-24 in super bowl 32. you play it back in your mind what should i have done differently did we not take the broncos seriously or not once you build up the team the first pressure is just getting good it was a sin that we lost that denver game we were a better team heavily favored but hats off to denver they played better that day then the second pressure is staying good to have a chance to be a two-time champion is right there for you and to not get it accomplished that's something that stays with you forever too [Music] 1998 season's end reggie white is placed on the reserve retired list by the green bay packers mike holmgren resigns as packers head coach as good as they were it's a blending of great talent which we had the team over individual things that team we had there in green bay those years was the most unselfish championship team i've ever been around after six years mike holmgren leaves the team to become the head coach and general manager for the seattle seahawks mike had a wonderful opportunity with with seattle i'm a firm believer that if uh [Music] if a person has an opportunity to better himself you better let him go better himself and he went [Music] any way we could keep him here the tandem of homegrown and farve it's like simon and garfunkel or whatever tandem you want to come up with they're better together mike holmgren was the greatest coach ever played for and if they had stayed together longer i think the packers would have won more super bowls he was a great teacher great motivator and you know he did a great job with this team january 11 1999 ray rhodes former packers defensive coordinator and recent head coach of the philadelphia eagles is named mike holmgren's replacement the personnel core was still there but when you're not focusing on execution things just got out of hand 1999 proves to be a middling season we had no direction we had no discipline all during the year we weren't playing well and ron was on the road scouting and he'd come in and see me on saturday morning when he got off the road and he'd say i'm sticking with ray i'm sticking with ray i said fine it's your call for the first time since i had been a green bay packer we were lost as a football team the packers closed out the last season of the decade at eight and eight when i got up in the morning whatever failure there was i couldn't blame anybody because i was looking at that person right in the mirror the season ends and he comes and says bob i'm gonna make a change he says i went down the practice field he said he's lost the team the team's running this thing he's not i went down to new orleans to play packers versus the patriots at the superdome and so i went into the craft suite before the game and myra craft the late miracraft she was a sweetheart she she said i'm upset at you she said you sold so many more tickets to packer fans than you did to patriot fans i said what do you mean well just listen to the crowd this is a hacker this is a packer stadium [Music] the patriots scored and that was a six point difference the six point tickets and i go in and i see robert and i say hey one more touchdown one more touchdown and you take the lead the lead you take the lead [Music] and i didn't have the lead out of my mouth soon enough when they kicked off and desmond howard at sob desmond howard runs it all the way back and so i'm standing there i'm standing there and the air came out of the balloon and the sweet [Music] one of the ways the packers almost ruined my career

Channel: Green Bay Packers

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Keywords: nfl, national football league, american football, packers game, packer, gb packer, green bay packers, packers

Id: DxPl3nlltdM

Length: 64min 40sec (3880 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 18 2022