Sorry, that is a debate I now avoid at all costs, because it never ends well.Originally Posted by Infamous
You wrote: "how many HOF'ers did he play with by the way?" Who is the "he"? I suspect you want to turn this into a Starr vs. Favre debate, and I have no intention of participating in that. But, I will say this; all of the Packers of the '60s did play with a lot of HOF'ers. They also played against a lot of them almost every week. It's simply a numbers thing. The NFL consisted of about 600 players in any given week for much of the 1960s. Fewer at the beginning of the decade, more at the end of the decade. Each team (just about) had HOFers. The Bears had 5 in the '60s (I think) and they were an up and down team. For quite some time now, the NFL has consisted of about 1700 players in any given week. Yet, they still elect similar #s of players to the HOF each year (more or less). So, today's player plays with fewer HOF'ers, but he also plays against fewer in any given game.
Favre was the "Favre" even non-football fans came to know because of the media, and that is a hype that did not exist in the 1960's or before and was only just getting it's footing in the '70s and '80s. If the same media component was there in the '60s, Starr would not have been Favre, but he would have been the '60s version of Tom Brady. Hornung had a very high profile for his day, who knows what that would have been today. Nitschke too, for completely different reasons, was very high profile in the NFL. Of course, the dominating personality was Lombardi, who took cast offs from other teams and existing Packers who had accomplished nothing and turned them into immediate winners. That was an amazing turn around, as the '50s were a very dismal time for Packer followers as well. I hate to say "fans", because we weren't really fans in those days as we think of them today, just followers about what went on, because you might learn of it a day or two after it happened if it was a prominent event. Getting a draft list could take weeks.
I'm not ignoring what Favre did for GB. However, I do believe that other Packers have been just as important to the Packers being the Packers as Brett Favre was. Each in his own way, in his own time made the Packers what they are today. My knowledge only goes back to the coming of Lombardi ("Who?" I asked at the time.) I suspect that arguments can be made also for the importance of various Packers in the '20s, '30s and '40s. This is a franchise that was on the verge of extinction, and/or being something very different at numerous times in its history. Lombardi and the players of the '60s made it "Titletown", reviving what was last seen in the mid '40s. Harlan, Wolf and Favre were the keys to reviving it yet again; but football is such a team sport that others around them can not be ignored.
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