1996 Super Bowl Team

[HarveyWallbangers]

MARK PRIOR

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/08/26/1/

When Mike Prior arrived in Green Bay in 1993 as an unrestricted free agent, he had a good idea of what he was getting into.

Prior had spent one season in Tampa Bay and the next six seasons in Indianapolis, and he knew the city of Green Bay was entirely different from where he had been.

Prior recently looked back on his first game in Green Bay, which came as a Buccaneer in his rookie season of 1985.

"We went up there and it was the Snow Bowl game," Prior recalled. "We had that snowstorm and it was crazy. We saw all those people in orange and then it turned out they were hunters and we thought they were coming for us. They didn't pack the house that day but I think that's because they probably couldn't get there.

"It was pretty amusing that day. The fans were really heckling us, 'How do you like this cold stuff?' I grew up in Chicago so it was kind of neat. Probably about 70 percent of the team had never seen snow before."

Eight years later, the 6-foot, 208-pound Prior would experience life in Green Bay once again, only this time it was as a member of the Packers' organization. Prior still gushes over his time spent here.

"Going from Tampa to Indy at that time and then to Green Bay was a totally different atmosphere," Prior explained. "Having 90 thousand people in the town was crazy. It was football fever. They loved their Packers up there, it didn't matter what kind of record they had.

"The fans were incredible. They packed the house. They were a different breed of fans, watching you outdoors in the harsh conditions. And they recognized the players right off the bat. They knew facts and data and they knew your whole bio I think when you showed up in town. And they would rattle it off.

"I was impressed. It was like, 'Oh my gosh.'"

Prior retired from football at the end of the '98 season and is living in Carmel, Ind., with his wife Diane and their three daughters, Nikki, 20, Bri, 17, and Paige, 15. Last August, Prior was hired by the Colts to serve as the team's Youth Football Commissioner. His duties including running the Big Blue Football Camps, and he visits grade schools to promote youth football.

Prior also worked for the Colts' post-game radio show last season on WFBQ 95 in Indianapolis, and he coaches freshmen football at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis.

The 42-year-old can't believe where the time has gone.

"This is going to be my eighth year out of football," Prior said. "I can't believe it will be 10 years since we won that Super Bowl. I am back in the real world again. I guess you could say I am in a normal job and trying to enjoy quality time at home with my family. I'm also enjoying watching the kids grow up."

Prior's personal journey is also a special one. He was cut by Tampa Bay following his rookie season and when he signed on with the Colts, they also cut him. He re-signed in 1987 to be a replacement player and he stuck around from there.

Though he played several seasons in the NFL, Prior often thinks back to his Packer days and appreciates the hard work that was constantly on display.

"When we won Super Bowl XXXI, Reggie (White), and even Brett (Favre), they were the leaders of the team but they thought they had to pick up their game also," Prior said. "It takes everybody to pick up their game and work for the same goals and that's basically what that team was about.

"It was like, 'Hey, show up on time and when you come to work, be ready to work. Let's not be goofing around.' And we enjoyed each other to a healthy extent. It wasn't 100 percent everybody-loving-everybody every minute, but that's part of the game and a working environment. But when we stepped on the field, everybody was united."

He served mainly as a backup in the Packers' defensive backfield, but Prior was a mainstay in the nickel and dime packages. And he was named one of the team's two special teams captains in the '96 postseason. (There were two captains on special teams, two on offense and two on defense in the playoffs.) Prior even had an interception in the Super Bowl.

Despite his busy schedule these days, Prior and his family still get back to Green Bay to visit friends and he still keeps in touch with Lindsey Knapp, Bill Schroeder, and Adam Timmerman.

Ever since he played at Lambeau Field in '85, Prior knew Green Bay was a unique place to be. Little did he know that 11 years later, Green Bay would have a special ring to it, and he'd be a part of it.

[HarveyWallbangers]

ANDRE RISON

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/08/27/2/

"Bad Moon Rison."

Even if you had no idea about the man, the nickname alone might cause you to have a few preconceived notions about him.

The "Bad Moon Rison" term had been attached to Andre Rison throughout most of his NFL career and often times led people to view the 6-foot-1, 195-pound wide receiver in a negative light regardless of whether they knew him or not.

So, when 1996 rolled around and the Packers were in need of a wide receiver, many people raised their eyebrows when Rison was claimed off waivers from Jacksonville.

The Packers had a 6-1 record at the time Robert Brooks suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and patellar tendon in his right knee, but they went 2-2 without his services. Sitting at 8-3 and at a crossroads in the season, Green Bay was entering the stretch run without one of its top playmakers.

And that's when Rison entered the scene.

Rison came in and helped make up for the loss of Brooks by starting in seven games and giving the Packers another vertical dimension in the passing game. Still, some thought that he'd be a bad influence on a team with such strong chemistry. Others said Rison wasn't going to be satisfied without being the focal point of the offense.

So, was this a bad move for the Green and Gold?

Well, considering the Packers were 8-0 with Rison in the lineup and became Super Bowl XXXI champions, it'd be difficult to argue against the addition of "Bad Moon."

Actually, he wasn't really "Bad Moon" anymore according to several teammates.

Defensive tackle Bob Kuberski said the Packers had nothing to worry about when it came to Rison's attitude or personality.

"Everything was fine," Kuberski explained. "Everybody made a big fuss about it, but he came into the team, and was assimilated into the team. And I think he came in and said, 'Ok, I see what these guys are doing, and I'll do the same thing.'

"You know, he was great."

Keith Jackson, who also played an instrumental role in the Packers' success, echoed those sentiments.

"You had heard all of this stuff about him," Jackson recalled. "Bad Moon Rison, how he used to do this and how is he going to conform. But I learned a life lesson. I learned if you really are unwavering in a commitment to one another, a person on the outside will come in and they will become a part of the group instead of pull someone out of the group.

"And Andre Rison came in and he was the perfect gentleman. He did everything that the coaches asked him to do. That was a huge play in the Super Bowl that he made to help us secure that game."

The play Jackson is referring to is arguably one of the biggest in team history and it came on only the Packers' second offensive play from scrimmage. Brett Favre saw a favorable matchup at the line of scrimmage, and he made eye contact with Jackson, Rison, and Antonio Freeman to make sure everybody was on the same page.

Seconds later, Favre found Rison wide open and the star receiver made an over-the- shoulder grab for a 54-yard touchdown. The play set the tone for the game and Rison finished with two catches for 77 yards.

Ten years later, Rison, 39, fondly recalls the role he played in the Super Bowl.

"It was great making the plays for my team," Rison said. "We got off on the right foot against a great team.

"It was a check off to me. Antonio would have been outside and I would have been inside. But I was outside, and Free went inside from the outset. Brett relayed the signal and then we hit it."

According to Rison, both he and Favre knew they had the ability to connect on big plays against New England.

"I knew I could beat those defensive backs anytime I wanted to," Rison said. "I played them twice already with Jacksonville. And one touchdown, Brett missed me on. I was even more open than the one I scored on. That one would have been an 80-yarder. He threw it behind me."

It's clear that Rison's contributions to the Packers paid off. He did everything that was asked of him and then some. Then again, that's what he expected to bring to the table.

"I was always a perfect gentleman," Rison claimed. "Writers write what they write. Teammates don't write the articles. That was a great case of that right there."

Regardless of what his critics thought, Rison was pleased to prove people wrong and help the Packers win a Super Bowl.

"I just thank the Lord that I had an opportunity to play with a playoff team and we won a world championship in Green Bay," Rison said. "We brought the Vince Lombardi Trophy home to Vince Lombardi."

Rison, who currently resides in Miami, played eight games with the Packers and then signed with Kansas City in 1997. After three years there, he moved on to Oakland for one season. Still feeling the itch to play, Rison spent parts of two seasons in the Canadian Football League, helping the Toronto Argonauts win a Grey Cup in 2004.

Reflecting on his brief period in Green Bay, Rison said he "enjoyed the crowd and sharing in the world championship," as well as reuniting with Favre, with whom Rison spent a season in Atlanta.

"It was a great situation," Rison explained. "We had former players that played with different teams and both were at the top of their game.

"I wish we could have played a few more years together, but unfortunately we didn't. I feel if they would have kept that combination together, then Green Bay would have won another one."

Rison said he's trying to get a shot again in the NFL, but if he doesn't, the spectacular touchdown he scored in the Super Bowl will forever live on in the storied Packers' history books.

"Coming from Brett Favre, one of the best quarterbacks to play, the first pass of the game, the first drive of the game, it doesn't get no better than that," Rison said.

"It doesn't get no better than that."

"Bad Moon Rison?"

Doesn't seem right anymore. How about Rison to the Occasion?

[HarveyWallbangers]

Marco Rivera

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/08/29/1/

Marco Rivera didn't know what to expect when he was selected by the Green Bay Packers in the sixth round of the 1996 NFL Draft.

He was fresh off the Penn State campus and being the 208th overall pick doesn't exactly translate to job security in professional football.

Rivera was in no position to make assumptions on where he stood with the Packers, and for that matter, he didn't know all that much about his new team, either. Fortunately for the 6-foot-4, 295-pound guard, someone close to him did.

"One of my buddies called me up and said, 'Hey man, the Green Bay Packers are going to win the Super Bowl this year, you lucked out,'" Rivera recalled. "And I'm like, 'Really?'

"The next thing I was thinking was 'Man, that's going to be a hard team to crack the lineup because you know if they're going to go to the Super Bowl, they're pretty much all loaded.' So, when I got there I didn't know what to expect."

It didn't take long before Rivera learned exactly what he was walking into, however.

"I go in the locker room and I see Brett Favre, and I don't say anything. The next guy I see is Reggie White. And I was like 'wow.' These are the guys I've been watching the last couple years. This is awesome."

Though Rivera enjoyed the thought of playing on a team filled with great players, reality sunk in shortly after the draft.

Sure, looking back on it now, Rivera can laugh. But one of his first on-field experiences as a rookie didn't offer much in the comedy department.

"The one memory that I had was when we first put the pads on in the first mini-camp in April," Rivera said with a chuckle. "I think (offensive line coach) Tom Lovat did it on purpose. He put me up one-on-one against Gilbert Brown. So I'm thinking, 'How am I going to stop this guy from getting to the bag?' And before I knew it, I was on my back, he was on top of the bag, and everybody was laughing.

"And I just was like, 'Man, this is a different game,' and I'll never forget that. Actually it was my second time, because the first one I went offsides and the second one I went up against Gilbert Brown, and he just picked me up and put me right back on that bag and I'm like, 'Wow, man, I've got a long way to go.'"

Perhaps Rivera didn't have as long to go as he previously thought. Considered a long shot to make the team, he was a surprise success story in training camp, which earned him a roster spot.

According to Rivera, he just tried to keep his nose to the grindstone while hoping for the best.

"I was a young guy, quiet, didn't talk much, and I was just trying to impress the coaches, do everything they wanted me to do," Rivera explained. "I was always in the weight room lifting. It was just putting my time in."

Clearly, his diligent work paid off as Rivera played nine seasons with the Packers, including three years as a Pro Bowler. Last season, as an unrestricted free agent, he joined the Dallas Cowboys and now at 34 years old, it's Rivera's turn as a wily veteran to take notice of the team's youngsters.

"Even now, I look at the young guys coming in and when I see guys do that (working out, putting time in), I know that this guy's committed and he wants to be a player because he's doing everything to get himself ready, he's doing everything he can to get the team ready to play," Rivera said.

"He's not showboating, he doesn't talk, he doesn't loudmouth. He's just quiet, getting everyone better, that's what it's all about. There's young guys that do that and there's other guys who'll come in and think they got the world by the horns. Young guys have to understand you have to put your time in if you want playing time. And when you do get your playing time, you've got to make it worthwhile."

Rivera didn't have much of an opportunity to play as a rookie. After all, the Packers were fairly set along the offensive line, particularly the interior line.

Instead of sulk or complain, however, Rivera soaked up the atmosphere, not that he didn't think about what it would have been like to play.

"At the time, I was happy to help the guys out," Rivera explained. "In the back of my mind, I was like 'Man, I'd love to be playing.' But I knew it wasn't my time, it wasn't my turn to play. And so I just did my best and did everything Tom Lovat wanted me to do and got better by practicing against other guys.

"My job on that team was to get the starters ready. So I went in every week trying to give the defensive guys the best picture possible to get ready to play the game. You know, basically that was my job and in turn, I was getting better. I was practicing against Gilbert Brown and Reggie White. You can't help but get better because those guys were so good. And that's how I gave back to the team, to get them ready to play on Sunday."

As a young man, Rivera said it was a learning experience unlike any other in terms of seeing how so many great players went about their daily work in the NFL.

Now when Rivera reflects on the Super Bowl XXXI team, he can't help but gush over the players that surrounded him in the locker room.

"I'm glad that I was part of that team because man, guys were so good," Rivera marveled. "I played with Reggie White, Santana Dotson, Gilbert Brown, Sean Jones, Brett Favre, Chewy (Mark Chmura), Frank (Winters), it was just a ton of guys. Robert Brooks. We had Edgar Bennett, William Henderson, we had them all. We had them all. Eugene Robinson. It was just fun times. It was a fantastic team and it was a great team to be a part of."

Rivera and his wife Michelle have three sons, Dante 6, Roman, 4, and Nico, 1, and though he may be considered grizzled by NFL standards, Rivera admits he would like to play three, four, or maybe even five years depending on how his body feels.

That's understandable, especially since he's enjoyed plenty of success and played with some great players along the way, including Favre and White in Green Bay.

"It was phenomenal," Rivera said. "Phenomenal. I got to play with two of the best players in the history of the game. Not just average players, you're talking about a three time MVP in Brett Favre. You're talking about Reggie White, everybody knows who Reggie White was. I mean, I was part of their team."

It also shouldn't come as a surprise that Rivera mentioned the Super Bowl win as one of his most memorable moments in Green Bay.

"When we won that Super Bowl and I saw how the town reacted and how the organization reacted...I mean, gosh, the trophy is named the Lombardi Trophy. It doesn't get any better than that," Rivera said. "And the trophy came home in my book.

"When you look at that, to me, pro football comes down to Lambeau Field, and it comes down to the Green Bay Packers. That's what it's all about. If you want to get to the heart of pro football the way it's supposed to be experienced, you go to Lambeau Field."

And just because Rivera no longer calls Green Bay home, that doesn't mean he doesn't often think about or correspond with the men who do.

In his first season away from the team, he still managed to keep tabs on some old friends.

"Brett's still my buddy, Mike Flanagan, Mark Tauscher, the whole offensive line," Rivera acknowledged. "I read the papers, see how the guys were doing, see if they were holding up, call them on the phone. I called Mark Tauscher and told him he looks fat every time on the phone.

"Monday night games were the best because I could sit home and watch the game. As cool as Mark Tauscher was, he was just a big fat guy on the TV. Then, I called him after the game and I'd say, 'Man, don't wear that white jersey, it makes you look horrible.' But we're like that. That's how we were when we were there so, that's how we still are."

It's been 10 years since Rivera was drafted, and those days of not knowing what to expect of the Green Bay Packers are long gone. He may be gone, too, but Rivera won't soon forget his time spent in Green Bay.

"The Green Bay Packers are such a storied franchise and I'm part of that," Rivera said. "I will always be part of that and to me, that's special. To me, nobody can ever take that away from me. Just to say that I played for the Green Bay Packers, the same Packers that Lombardi coached, Bart Starr played for, Nitschke played for, and all those guys from back in the '60s and '70s.

"Reggie White, Brett Favre, those were all Packers. Marco Rivera was a Packer. That right there, that's what football is all about. If you want to ask any professional player how do you want to play and how do you want to end up, it doesn't get any better than that."

It's almost difficult to believe those days of Rivera not knowing what to expect of the Green Bay Packers existed at all.

[HarveyWallbangers]

EUGENE ROBINSON

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/09/05/4/

Shortly after joining the Packers in 1996, safety Eugene Robinson sat down at a Washington Street sports bar in Green Bay. After a television announced the Packers had traded George Teague -- the man Robinson would replace -- for a draft choice, a fan sitting beside the new safety cursed the roster move.

Robinson then revealed his identity.

"Are you any good?" the fan asked.

Robinson's play in 1996 answered that question with an emphatic yes. He tied for second in the NFC with six interceptions and finished fourth on the Packers with 82 tackles. During Super Bowl XXXI, he led the team with nine total tackles. His coverage ability complemented an already talented secondary, allowing strong safety LeRoy Butler to shoot the gaps on blitzes while providing over-the-top help to young cornerbacks Doug Evans, Craig Newsome and Tyrone Williams.

"It worked out pretty well," Robinson said. "We had an absolute crew. It was easy to make plays in that scenario."

A 12-year veteran at the time, he also served as an emotional and spiritual leader for the defense. In the third quarter of the Super Bowl, an exhausted Reggie White breathed deeply.

"Geno," White told Robinson, "I'm tired. I feel like I just can't get off. I feel like I'm trying too hard."

Robinson then huddled on the sideline with White, leading the Minister of Defense in prayer. The veteran safety recited Isaiah 40:31: Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

White became rejuvenated. He collected two sacks with less than three minutes to go in the third quarter and racked up his third sack to seal the game with less than two minutes left in the fourth.

Robinson, 42, continues to motivate athletes, but he provides those lessons to a much younger set. Since 2001 he has coached at Charlotte (N.C.) Christian High School. The 1,000-student, K-12 school integrates biblical principles into its academic program. Robinson serves as the varsity football offensive coordinator, assistant wrestling coach (of the 2006 conference champions) and assistant track coach for the Knights. He wrestled and played football collegiately at Colgate. Robinson lettered in baseball instead of track but applied lessons he learned in the NFL to his running instruction.

Although he finds improving the skills of young men rewarding, he accepted the jobs coaching the Knights to spend more time with his children.

"It allowed me to be closer to them," Robinson said.

Brandon, 16, is a sophomore at the school while Brittany, 18, a former Knight, now attends Clemson. Eugene has coached Brandon since his early days in youth sports, and Brandon asked him to accept the high school coaching jobs.

Eugene remains actively involved on the professional sports level as well, working as the color commentator on the Carolina Panthers' radio broadcasts since 2002.

"I like being able to tell you the technical aspects and make it fun," Robinson said.

Robinson now allies himself more with the Panthers - with whom he played the last year of his career - than the teams he previously played for, including the Packers, Seattle Seahawks or Atlanta Falcons.

"I live vicariously through the Panthers now," Robinson said.

That connection to the Panthers is understandable. He receives his paycheck from them, interviews their players in the locker room and travels to road games on the team charter airplane. But whenever the Packers play the Panthers (like they did on Oct. 3, 2005), Robinson makes an effort to hang out with his former teammates like William Henderson and Brett Favre on the playing field before the game.

"I go down and see these old guys," he said. "That's fun."

Robinson made those friendly connections because of a shrewd move by former General Manager Ron Wolf. On June 27, 1996, Wolf sent defensive end Matt LaBounty to the Seahawks in exchange for Robinson's services. Robinson, already friends with White from playing against him and attending various Christian events together, was excited by the Packers' potential. But the team's skill exceeded his expectations.

"I knew they had a solid crew," Robinson said. "When I got there, boy, was I pleasantly surprised that they were even better than what I thought."

They turned out to be the best team in the NFL.

[HarveyWallbangers]

KEN RUETTGERS

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/09/06/1/

"Only the strong survive."

That just might be one of the most overused, overstated clichés in all of sports. But in the case of Ken Ruettgers, that phrase was accurate for the majority of his career.

While some may believe that athletes have it made simply because they are being paid handsomely to play the game they love, there's more to it than that. Sure, playing time, where you play and how much money you make all factor into the life of professional athletes. Yet to men like Ruettgers, winning is of the utmost importance.

Considering he was the only player from the 1996 Super Bowl roster to play in the Forrest Gregg and Lindy Infante eras, the 6-foot-6, 286-pound left tackle clearly paid his dues. But just when it appeared that Ruettgers would come full circle and enjoy the Super Bowl season, he suffered through a knee injury and only played in four games.

Though Ruettgers, 43, was on that '96 roster and earned a Super Bowl ring, he was forced to sit through the last five games as well as the playoffs.

"Oh my goodness, it was so painful," Ruettgers explained. "It was so hard to get that close, and to have something happen where I couldn't physically make it."

Despite not getting the opportunity to finish out that special season, Ruettgers was still part of something great in Green Bay. He played five years under Mike Holmgren, contributing to a winning situation.

Ruettgers was a force at left tackle, and based on his ability to stick around for three different coaches in 12 years, he was always one of the team's best players when healthy. And now when he reflects on that time, he does so with pride.

"That was a great feeling to be part of the turnaround in Green Bay," Ruettgers said. "It was hard to do. There was a big turnover when Holmgren and (Ron) Wolf came in. By the time we got to the Super Bowl there was a big turnover.

"But you know, 50 percent of NFL players play three years or less. That's just the nature of the NFL."

The nature of the NFL is what led Ruettgers to the life he leads today. He lives in Sisters, Ore., with his wife Sheryl, and their children, Matt, 18, Katherine, 16, and Susan, 14.

After seeing what old teammates and opponents went through after they retired from football, Ruettgers was on a mission to help former professional athletes cope with the transition to a new career outside of sports. This led to a nonprofit organization called Gamesover (www.gamesover.org).
Ruettgers is the executive director and is also working on his Ph.D. in sociology. It's only fitting that his dissertation will focus on retired NFL players.

While he was in Green Bay, Ruettgers got the idea of what life might be like after football.

"In '93, I think Mike Holmgren brought a group called Invest in Yourself in, and it was kind of a preparation for retirement and I thought that was really interesting," Ruettgers said. "He brought them in during training camp and everybody on the training camp roster got some help and I thought 'Man, that is really cool.'"

Though he may have thought about his post-football career, it's not as if Ruettgers really worried about it. In fact, his mindset was just the opposite.

"It was challenging for me to go through transition," Ruettgers admitted. "I didn't think I would have any challenges at all because I had my MBA, I wrote the book, and we were well networked with the community. So, I thought, 'Man, no problem.'

"Guys I played with were ending up bankrupt, divorced, they were unemployed for years and I kept thinking, 'What is going on?' And then (former Packers teammate) Tom Neville ended up getting shot and dying in that police standoff and I wondered what is going on for a guy to lose himself in a situation like that. I thought 'Gosh, is anybody doing anything for these guys once they leave the game?' And nobody really was."

Fortunately for retired athletes, Ruettgers is here to help, especially those who feel they are taking on the "real world" by themselves.

"A lot of it is when these guys leave the game, they are so isolated," Ruttgers said. "They feel like they are the only ones going through it. I try to hook them up with life coaches, and we have a network of businesses around the country that we try to connect them with for educational counseling.

"But the greatest challenge that I found is not getting them jobs or getting them back into school, it's just working through the challenges of transitions they face. Types of relations, lifestyle changes, relational challenges, loss of structure, uncertainty, and of course the biggest one is when identity becomes an issue."

Obviously football was, and probably always will be, a huge part of Ruettgers life, and many of his clients come from that arena, However, that doesn't mean he helps only retired football players.

"I speak to a couple hundred active professional athletes a year," Ruettgers said. "Probably 100 of those are football players. I was recently down in Brazil talking to retired World Cup players. You know, golfers, gymnasts, cowboys. I haven't talked to any motorists yet, but hockey, baseball, basketball players are common."

According to Ruettgers, his line of work is very rewarding, especially when he helps somebody turn a bad situation into a good one.

"Recently I was working with a football player who had been separated from his wife and he was unreachable," Ruettgers explained. "But I kept working with him and talking with him, and eventually he and his wife are back together. I also worked with one guy who had been going from job to job and now he wants to become a doctor. He's going to med school."

Like any exciting job, Ruettgers said the stories and situations he deals with vary.

"I just recently got a call from a guy I played against," Ruettgers explained. "My last year or two he was a rookie. He played nine (years) and now he's been out for four, and he's broke. So, I just started working with him.

"It's active guys, retired guys, I just try to encourage them on the phone and talk to them about typical challenges guys face. Occasionally, my wife will talk to their wife on the phone."

Another perk to the job is the travel requirements that Ruettgers must meet. In fact, it sometimes leads him back to where it all started. Typically, Ruettgers attends training camp and made it to one Green Bay game last season. He said he's taking his son Matt, who graduates from high school this year, to Lambeau Field next fall.

It's only fitting that Ruettgers can show his son where it all started. After all, he endured some down times earlier in his career with the Packers, but in the end, everything has worked out very well.

But then again, if you really do believe that only the strong survive, then you had to know Ruettgers would be here all along.

[HarveyWallbangers]

WAYNE SIMMONS

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/09/07/3/

In late September of 1996, the Green Bay Packers visited the Minnesota Vikings' Metrodome. Vikings running back Amp Lee ran toward the flat, and Packers outside linebacker Wayne Simmons grabbed Lee by the shoulder pads and swung him around like a helicopter's propeller before slamming him to the turf.

"It was unreal," linebacker George Koonce said. "It was so devastating what he did."

Like he did all season long, Simmons forced running backs to think twice before crossing his area. He recorded 67 total tackles, 21/2 sacks and two forced fumbles in 1996, but his true impact could not be discerned in statistics. Defensive end Reggie White and safety Eugene Robinson may have served as the defense's spiritual leaders, but Simmons added the intimidating presence.

"He brought that meanness and toughness to the Green Bay Packers' defense," Koonce said. "I never played with an individual that played the game with the mean streak that Wayne Simmons played with."

Simmons, who collected 250 total tackles during his 41/2 years with the Packers, demonstrated that mean streak during his tackle of Lee. He did not receive a penalty or personal foul for the play, but running back Edgar Bennett, a friend of Lee's from their days at Florida State, objected to it. Bennett approached him on the sidelines.

"Wayne, you didn't have to do him like that," Bennett said. "That was my college roommate."

Simmons replied: "Whenever I'm out there on the field, that's the way I play."

The 1993 first-round draft pick may have played harder and faster than most, but he also drove his car at excessive speeds during the tragic morning of Aug. 23, 2002.

At 2:45 a.m. that day, Simmons, driving by himself, sped his green Mercedes-Benz through traffic on Interstate 70 in Independence, Mo., and then veered off the highway. His Mercedes rolled over several times before landing in a ditch and catching fire.

Witnesses attempted to remove Simmons from the burning vehicle but could not unfasten his seat belt. Firefighters then arrived to put out the fire, and he was taken to Independence Regional Health Center. Doctors there pronounced the 32-year-old Simmons dead.

"To have his life cut that short was really very tragic," Packers CEO Bob Harlan said. "It certainly was a waste of what could have been."

Simmons passed away just outside of Kansas City where he started 18 games between 1997 and 1998 for the Chiefs. The Buffalo Bills claimed him off waivers in 1998 before releasing him in February of 1999.

Simmons joined the Chiefs after the Packers traded him in October of 1997, and the former Clemson star made Kansas City his post-NFL home. Simmons, whose mother operated a small restaurant called "Dot's Diner" in Hardeeville, S.C., ran a midtown restaurant and nightclub called 50/50.

On the field Simmons not only took down opposing ballcarriers like Lee, but also had a knack for playing the passing lanes and smothering receivers. In 1996, he had one interception and five passes defended.

"He would absolutely shut down a tight end," Robinson said. "(He was) one of the most underrated players that we had on that team."

The Packers last won the Super Bowl just 10 years ago, but two defensive starters -- Simmons and Reggie White -- from that team already have passed away.

"It's a terrible thing to have to ponder," Harlan said. "Both Wayne and Reggie were a big part of the Packers' family. They were huge losses for this franchise."

[HarveyWallbangers]

AARON TAYLOR

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/09/08/1/

As the confetti fell at the end of the Green Bay Packers' 35-21 win in Super Bowl XXXI, guard Aaron Taylor knew he had reached the pinnacle of his athletic career.

"That's when the realization hit me," he said. "We had won, and we had done what we set out to do."

In January, Taylor, 34, viewed championship confetti cannons from a different vantage point. From June of 2004 through the 2005 season, he served as a college football studio analyst at ABC Sports. As part of his job, he dissected one of the best college football games of all time -- Texas' 41-38 ebb-and-flow Rose Bowl victory over USC.

"As football fans, those are the kind of games we all enjoy watching," Taylor said. "It was a very unique spectacle ... It was great just to be a small part of it."

Landing the ABC studio job was just as serendipitous. After teaching English to teenagers in Chile and Peru for five months, Taylor served as a studio analyst for College Sports TV in 2003. He admits he accepted the job more so that he could afford to live in New York City rather than to analyze football. In an industry where people step on each other to secure an on-air gig, the TV stations chased Taylor rather than the other way around. He does not even own an audition tape, a staple for any aspiring broadcaster.

"I don't even know how I got this job at ABC," he said. "Everything I was doing was geared toward teaching."

CSTV sent a 10-second clip of one of his studio snippets to the Sports Emmys. To this day Taylor does not even know which clip, but the footage impressed ABC.

Although Taylor liked working at ABC, he resigned in early April of 2006 from what many would consider a dream job. He left on amicable terms; Taylor simply wanted to follow his heart, return to the West Coast and explore his true passions in life.

"It was a decision for personal reasons," he said. "As tempting as television was and as fun as it was and as much as I enjoyed doing it, it wasn't as complete a picture as I would (like to) have it."

Taylor has not chosen his next occupation. One idea includes creating an organization to help college athletes adjust to the professional ranks. In the meantime, he will substitute teach at Pioneer Elementary School in Escondido, Calif., a suburb of San Diego. A full-time version of that vocation occupied him before he accepted his ABC job, and Taylor could return to a similar line of work.

"If I had to guess, it's going to involve some form of teaching, some form of mentoring children," he said. "I don't know, but I have a feeling it will be dealing with kids and education and some sort of travel or hopefully all of the above."

Education, travel and helping others have served as a major part of his life since retiring from the NFL. Taylor has "run with the bulls" in Spain, taught English in Peru and Chile and traveled through 13 countries in Europe. In January of 2005, 39 days after a tsunami ravaged Sri Lanka, he delivered goods and built a community center and more than 40 temporary homes for the Sri Lankans.

"I'm just continuing to look for ways to influence life and make a difference in the world," Taylor said. "I'm just getting started."

His post-tsunami work is not Taylor's only humanitarian effort. In the spring of 2005, he set up a health and education endowment called the Aaron Taylor Impact Fund, which acts as an intermediary between philanthropists and beneficiaries. Taylor actively raises funds and secures corporate sponsorships, including a $35,000 donation by NFL charities. Despite his role overseeing the fund, Taylor still has time to travel.

He recently journeyed to the Baja Life Camp retreat in Mexico where he practiced functional stretching, body alignment and an organic, raw food diet to remove body toxins. Although a February trip to Brazil challenged his eating restrictions, Taylor has felt the benefits of eating non-cooked, preservative-free foods.

"I definitely noticed a difference," he said. "That kind of woke me up."

The stretching routine at Baja also proved helpful for a player whose early playing career was marred by injury. Before his rookie season began, he tore the patellar tendon in right knee. In his second season he suffered the same injury to his left knee during the first round of the playoffs. After another offseason of rigorous rehabilitation, his third year proved to be a charm. Taylor started all 16 games and capped it by winning the Super Bowl.

"For me it was extra special because of everything I had to overcome," Taylor said.

Taylor last traveled to Green Bay, the city where his redemptive season took place, a year-and-a-half ago. Taylor remains good friends with Packers college scout Lenny McGill and several others in the area and would like to make it back soon.

He might first, however, have to become more flexible with his organic diet to allow for some beer and bratwurst.

[HarveyWallbangers]

JEFF THOMASON

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/09/09/1/

Jeff Thomason was a third-string tight end in Green Bay for the majority of his career, including the 1996 season when the Packers brought the Lombardi Trophy home.

But while it may have been difficult to find time on the field behind Mark Chmura and Keith Jackson, that doesn't mean Thomason didn't get the full-fledged effect of what life was like as a Green Bay Packer.

"It's just a neat place to play because everyone takes you in and adores you in a sense," Thomason, 37, marveled. "And they support you in such an incredible way. It's like no other place I ever played in."

The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Thomason spent 10 seasons in the NFL, five of them in Green Bay. His role in the '96 season was primarily on special teams, but he provided valuable depth at the tight end position when Chmura went down for three games in the regular season.

Now as he reflects on his time with the Packers, Thomason insists that although you can win a Super Bowl somewhere else, it just wouldn't be the same.

"You just could not have, as a player, picked a better place to win a Super Bowl," he said. "That town has got so much pride and love for their Packers. It was just so neat to be a part of that thing."

Thomason also got the opportunity to play in Super Bowl XXXIX with the Philadelphia Eagles, filling in for injured started Chad Lewis. It was the only game Thomason played that season, as he found a new line of work in New Jersey with a construction company called Toll Brothers.

Thomason, who oversees different communities as a developer, transferred to just outside of Denver last year. He's married to Blake and the couple has two daughters, Taylor and Lily, and a little boy named Beau.

Though he's been out of the NFL for a couple of seasons, Thomason hasn't stopped being an athlete. He competes in a couple of triathlons each year, and says that he works out in the morning every day for about an hour, either biking, running or swimming.

Someday, Thomason would like to compete in the Ironman competition, but right now the time constraints have put that goal on the backburner.

Speaking of goals, Thomason said he would like to get back to Lambeau Field soon, especially since he hasn't been there since the 2000 season with the Eagles.

"I plan on getting back there with my family and to show my kids," Thomason said. "It was such a great memory of my life, and to see the fans and the town, it would be a real thrill."

Thomason's desire to get back to Green Bay shouldn't come as a surprise because he admits that the atmosphere there is one of the things he remembers the most from the Packers' Super Bowl run.

"One of my greatest memories is when we won the NFC Championship game in Green Bay," Thomason explained. "I think there was like two or three minutes left in the game and everyone on the sidelines was just hugging each other and going crazy. The fans and the town were so supportive and I think it was about negative-three degrees. It was just freezing.

"The Super Bowl itself was incredible. Everything about it was awesome, but that one moment to be in that town and the city and be a part of that team, I mean it was something that I look back on and get chills. Everybody walking around and putting their NFC Championship hats on, it was such a neat place to be. I'm so happy I got to share that with those guys."

For Thomason, the team's arrival in Green Bay after being crowned Super Bowl champions is also something he will never forget.

"One of the things that was so incredible was when we had the parade the day after the Super Bowl," Thomason explained. "It was 10 degrees, there were no windows on the buses, and we're cruising around and we couldn't even move the buses because there were people everywhere on the street and people without their shirts on.

"And we got to the stadium about four hours late and not a single soul had left. They waited for us in a packed stadium."

Thomason said he still keeps in touch with Bob Kuberski and Doug Pederson, though he'd "love to see everybody again." After all, it was the relationships that his teammates had with one another that made the super season possible.

"It was such a tight group of guys," Thomason explained. "All of us got along so well. There were so many great memories hanging out in the locker room playing backgammon or making fun of each other. It was just such a fun group of guys to be around. Everyone seemed to mesh well together."

He may not wear his '96 Super Bowl ring very often, but Thomason said it symbolizes everything that was great about that team.

"I was wearing it when I was doing my interviews and doing that kind of thing for a while," Thomason said. "It's neat to go back to. It's not the ring itself, it's just the memories I have around it with the people I experienced it with that year. I could sit there and tell stories with so many guys about that year. It was so fun to share that with so many people."

And when he says "so many people," it's clear that Thomason wasn't only referring to his teammates, but also to the Packer Backers that made up so many of his special memories in Green Bay.

[muzz]

OK enough enough!! lmao

Your Guys beat my Guys!! OK I Give!!

I sulked, I was mad.............
Desmond Howard, I want that ball back bitch!!!
NOOOOOOOO B4 ya get into the EZ!!

DH, you definitely don't play fair!!

Great win guys, I still remember the misery............

[HarveyWallbangers]

ADAM TIMMERMAN

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/09/11/1/

Adam Timmerman has always known the meaning of hard work. It's what he learned on his family's dairy farm in Cherokee, Iowa.

In fact, it was Timmerman's work ethic that always made an NFL career possible.

Not that he thought he'd ever have one.

After all, farm kids don't often dream of making it big in professional sports, and if they do, it's awfully difficult to act on those fantasies because of all the work that has be done on the farm.

For Timmerman, who grew up in the northwest corner of Iowa, sports were just a release from the daily working grind he was used to, as he played football, basketball, and track in high school. Though he excelled in all three, he certainly had no idea that one day he'd make a livelihood in professional football.

"I think it's like a lot of kids, it's just a dream where you think, 'Oh, it's just a dream, it's not ever going to come true,'" Timmerman, 34, said of playing in the NFL. "For me, growing up on a farm, sports were a chance to get away and be with your friends.

"We didn't watch a lot of sports on TV, we just had other things going on with the farm that seemed more important. It wasn't a huge part of our life. It was kind of weird how the whole thing unfolded."

He's right. The path Timmerman took to the professional ranks wasn't a conventional one. The 6-foot-4, 295-pound guard played his college ball at Division II South Dakota State, hardly a power in the national spotlight. But he still managed to grab individual attention by earning All-American awards as a junior and senior as well as the Jim Langer Award, for offensive lineman of the year, in his final season.

Despite the accolades, Timmerman slipped to the seventh round of the 1995 NFL Draft and the Packers grabbed him with the 230th overall pick. Not only did Timmerman see action in 13 regular season games that season, he also filled in for Packers' starter Aaron Taylor for part of a playoff game while starting two others.

Timmerman more than held his own early on, and he hasn't looked back in his career since. He has been a starter since those early days in Green Bay, and in '96, he helped the Packers earn a Super Bowl XXXI win over the New England Patriots.

According to Timmerman, the media claimed that neither he nor the group of rookies he entered the league with were supposed to help the Packers short-term, or over the long haul.

"I'll never forget the guys that came in with my draft class," Timmerman said. "Guys like me and Antonio (Freeman), William Henderson, Brian Williams, Travis Jervey. Those were guys that I came in with, and I remember the article in the paper after we were drafted saying we were maybe the worst draft class the Packers ever had.

"And it turned out to be maybe five or six starters that came out of that class. We kind of took that personally, it kind of motivated us coming into our rookie season and it bonded us together."

He may not have gotten the media's respect, but Timmerman said he'd never forget the attention he got from day one from the fans.

"I'm a seventh-round draft choice and they would know my name," Timmerman said in awe. "And I'm like, 'Man, on most rosters no one would know who the seventh-round pick was.'

"Basically it was everywhere, you were surrounded by it. So I was always impressed with that. It really did add to the excitement for me. Being from a smaller college, I didn't really know what NFL football was all about. But I was very fortunate, very blessed to be in Green Bay with that kind of atmosphere."

According to Timmerman, his late father Larry was a huge Packer fan well before Adam became a member of the team. Playing for his dad's favorite team was a bonus for Timmerman.

"That was pretty cool," Timmerman recalled. "I don't think he ever imagined that his son would ever grow up and play for the Packers. He knew the Packers back in the heyday when they were winning championships, but I think for him, it was kind of a long way off. I think it was kind of almost not real for him."

Timmerman exited Green Bay after the 1998 season and signed with the St. Louis Rams. Between the two organizations, he has started in four Super Bowls, and has won one with each team.

So, while St. Louis has been great to Timmerman, did he ever want to leave Green Bay? He doesn't hesitate in his answer.

"I would have loved to stay there," Timmerman explained. "My wife and I talk about it and we loved our time there. I definitely didn't want to leave at the time."

Since Timmerman departed, he has had many significant experiences. Besides the Super Bowl appearances, and the extreme commitment to football, Timmerman and his wife Jana have stayed busy with family life, too. They have three children, Mason, 7, Alexa 5, and Jada, an infant.

Unfortunately for Timmerman, his family suffered a loss in May 1998 when his father Larry passed away after an ATV accident. Adam said he still misses his dad a great deal, but it makes him treasure the days on the farm even more.

"A bunch of my friends from college came (to the funeral) and they said, 'Hey, you've spent more time already with your dad then I ever will and he's still alive,'" Timmerman recalled. "My dad and my brother and I, we all worked together all the time, and that's what we did. It was fun, it wasn't like a drag."

Timmerman still returns to his roots every offseason, too.

"I try to go back every spring to help my brother out when he gets busy," Timmerman explained. "I try to keep up as much as I can, but it gets a little bit tricky now that we have the kids. When we were in Green Bay we used to go back for three or four weeks, but once we started having kids, especially with Mason in school, it's getting harder to help out."

Between spending time with his family, working on the farm, and playing football, Timmerman has been plenty busy. But there's still one other aspect of his life that can't go unnoticed: his faith.

According to Timmerman, it's something he's always had, but it developed further in Green Bay because of men like Ken Ruettgers and Reggie White, among others.

"He (Reggie) was a great guy to be around, especially with me being young in my faith," Timmerman explained. "He was a good guy to look up to, and we had a good group of guys.

"We had some quality people to be around and for me to grow up with at that time. So I really felt fortunate and blessed to be around those guys and have them to kind of really disciple me and bring me along so I could become more mature myself."

With all the temptations surrounding young people with money and fame, one might believe that Timmerman would have a difficult time fitting in with teammates in the locker room. Yet, that's never been the case for Timmerman.

"I think a lot of people know where I stand, it's not a confrontation or conflict at all," said Timmerman, who has been one of the team's captains the last couple seasons. "I hope it's not and I would never make it that way. We are called to love one another and not cause problems with one another. And I think for the most part, guys are mostly receptive on the team to it. It's a little bit different now that we're older.

"Some of the guys coming straight from college view life totally differently than I do with three kids, so it's kind of funny because I remember being in that position myself. I see young players coming into the league and having a lot to learn, more about life than football actually."

Timmerman could teach teammates a thing or two not only about life, but football as well, including what it takes to be a leader.

And if there is anybody more dependable, durable, or steady than Timmerman, good luck finding him. He's been selected to two Pro Bowls and while he was in Green Bay, Timmerman helped the Packers' offensive attack achieve greatness. In the '97 season alone, Timmerman never even missed a play.

Timmerman isn't certain exactly when it will happen, but he knows his career is nearing the end.

"I think probably it all depends on my body," Timmerman said. "I just had a knee surgery and 11 years takes a toll on the body. Probably if I play next year, that will be about it.

"It's definitely winding down for me. It's been a great run. I definitely feel fortunate to be on successful Packers teams the four years I was there and to be on successful Rams teams while I've been here. It's been a lot of games and a lot of fun, but I've met a lot of great people along the way."

When it's all said and done, Timmerman will be known as a great player, but an even better man. He no longer lives on the family farm, but you can bet that Timmerman will have more time to get back to the place where it all started.

After all, you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy, right?

[HarveyWallbangers]

REGGIE WHITE

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/09/12/3/

When the late Reggie White signed with the Green Bay Packers in 1993, he did so with a purpose.

No, it wasn't the money. After all, he could have landed a big contract nearly anywhere he desired. He was the most sought-after free agent not only at that time, but perhaps in the history of unrestricted free agency.

It wasn't for the big market of Green Bay. White certainly could have landed several endorsement opportunities in a much bigger city.

And no, White didn't join the Packers because it was perhaps the last place anyone thought he would want to play.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of the greatest players to ever don a Packers' uniform, White signed with Green Bay to win a world championship. And in 1996, that's exactly what he and his teammates did.

White, who as a Philadelphia Eagle had previously competed against Brett Favre in 1992, knew the Packers had an up-and-coming signal caller as well as a team that was on the brink of something special. Despite battering Favre early and often, the Eagles couldn't stop the second-year quarterback from leading the Packers to a 27-24 win, and White was thoroughly impressed with his toughness and desire.

Little did he know at the time, but White would later say that Favre's ability as a quarterback and the fact that he kept getting back up on that November day had a great deal to do with White joining the Packers.

Needless to say, it didn't take the Packers very long to reap the benefits of having No. 92 on their side. And in '96, White's dominance helped the Green and Gold reach heights it hadn't seen in quite some time.

Following the gentle giant's lead, the Packers defense ranked No. 1 in the entire league, a mark it hadn't achieved since 1967. Despite being double-teamed week in and week out, White still managed to lead the club in sacks with 81/2 , and he set a Super Bowl record with three sacks against the New England Patriots.

It was White's ability to take over games and inspire his teammates that gave the Packers the extra push the team needed on more than one occasion. At 6-foot-5 and 304 pounds, White could toss offensive linemen seemingly at the drop of a hat. And he did just that, registering 198 sacks in his 15 seasons in the NFL.

That sack total has since been surpassed by Bruce Smith, but White is Green Bay's all-time leader with the 681/2 he totaled in his six seasons with the organization. He was a 14-time Pro Bowl selection, an 11-time All-Pro, and was named the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year twice.

White was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, this past August, as well as the Packers Hall of Fame in July.

The list goes on and on, but perhaps what separated White from others had little to do with numbers, since his biggest contribution probably couldn't be measured. It's been said time and again, but it can't be overstated that the Minister of Defense had a way of walking into a room and immediately making his presence felt without ever saying a word.

Simply put, he was larger than life.

"There was only one Reggie," linebacker Bernardo Harris marveled. "Nobody was as strong as Reggie, nobody could play like Reggie, but you saw his motor, you saw the abilities he had and you just marvel at the things he did. You were just thankful that he was on your team. When somebody was down or when something had to be fixed, he never shied away from speaking up. He was the type of guy you could learn a lot from on and off the field."

Despite White's legendary status, as well as his imposing stature, he was a gentle man.
Deeply involved in charity work throughout his life, White was very generous with his talents away from the field as well.

According to his teammates, that is what made White such an endearing man.

"It was like having that big brother," said Santana Dotson, a close friend of White's. "I always put him in the category where you had your mom, dad, and then Reggie. And when I say mom, dad, and Reggie, it was somebody you could talk to, get their vantage point and their point of view. You knew they had no ulterior motives.

"I just really remember how approachable he was. That was from day one. Reg was always somebody you could talk to. And if you talked to him, whether it was every month, or every other day, you felt like you just talked to him every day, that's just how genuine he was."

White's helping hand didn't only reach out to veterans like Dotson or Sean Jones, either. Instead of keeping to himself and playing the role of an ego-driven superstar, White wanted to help out everybody he came in contact with.

He would often call meetings and address the team whenever it was necessary. But it was the counseling he did away from the field that made a lasting impact on so many of the men he shared the locker room with.

"I tell you what, it was a very unique situation because you basically had a person who was a preacher playing football," Tyrone Williams said. "You could pretty much go to him for anything. He would give you inspirational hope and inspirational development.

"I got to Green Bay as a young person and he helped me out a ton. He helped a lot of players, too. It was a special situation that just so happened to fall into my lap. I was just very thankful to be around the guy. He was so spiritual it was unbelievable."

He may have been one of the greatest players in the history of the NFL, but according to those who played with him, he was a better teammate.

It's no surprise that White wasn't afraid to speak his mind. Then again, that's what a great leader -- and White was that in every sense of the word -- normally does.

"He got it done on the field," safety Mike Prior said. "He always gave a great effort and he was a vocal leader, too, in the locker room. If things were going well or even if they weren't, he'd let everyone know about it. It was constructive criticism."

It's hardly a secret that White had the ability to make those around him on defense better, but his practice habits affected the whole team.

And when push came to shove, those teammates didn't want to let White down, even if they only competed against each other in practice.

"I practiced against Reggie at Tennessee and in Green Bay," Bruce Wilkerson explained. "When we were in college, I cut my teeth against Reggie. To come to Green Bay and play against him, he was an older guy, I was an older guy, it would be kind of funny because if we got going against each other, Mike Holmgren would call us pumped up Tennessee boys.

"And you know, I hate to lose. But going against Reggie, you're going to lose quite a bit. But it would just elevate the tempo of practice. It was fun. I just considered it a learning experience. If you can go against one of the best guys in the NFL every day in practice and do a decent job, that would make the games easier."

Earl Dotson was in the same boat as Wilkerson.

"He kicked my butt," said Dotson, a right tackle. "He made me a better player. Sunday was like a day off for me after facing him all week."

The Patriots certainly didn't have any vacation time against Green Bay on Jan. 26, 1997. In fact, they had all they could handle with the dominating defensive end.

White, as he so often did in the past, came up with big plays when his team needed him the most. With little time remaining in the third quarter, he sacked quarterback Drew Bledsoe on consecutive plays. This dominance, along with Desmond Howard's 99-yard kickoff return, took the wind out of New England's sails.

He finished the day with another sack and it was just another classic case of how White responded in crunch time. His performance was no surprise to defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur.

"This is the biggest game," the late Shurmur said at the time, "and Reggie has his biggest day. That tells you something about him."

According to Larry Brooks, the defensive line coach, it was this type of effort that the coaching staff knew it could always count on from White.

"He was an All-Pro and one of the guys that had greatness about him," Brooks said. "But you'd never know it as a coach. He'd try to do everything that you ask him, which always sticks out in my mind when you have a great player."

Besides all of his accomplishments on the field, and there certainly was no shortage of those, White was also widely known for his faith in God. An ordained minister, he was very serious about God's work.

In fact, when White decided to sign with the Packers in 1993, he insisted that was what God had told him to do.

According to wide receiver Robert Brooks, who is now a minister himself, White had a lasting impact on his faith as well.

"One thing I know about Reggie was that he was very consistent in his faith. He was very instrumental in me coming to Christ because he was one of the only Christians I knew who lived what he preached about," Brooks explained. "You know, he lived what he was talking about. You always see hypocrites in every area of life where they say one thing and do a different thing. He was one of the people I watched because I was looking for something to believe and someone to trust in.

"I had lost faith in people. And you never want to have your faith in people anyway. But I think what God does in his mercy is he always has one or two people reserved who can always show you the light and say, you know what, there are some true people, there are some people that are authentic and there are some people that are true to what they believe. And Reggie was one of those people. I love to give the testimony that he was very instrumental in me coming to Christ and we had a very, very good friendship."

Brian Williams, who was only in his second season at the time, was convinced from the get-go that White's faith in God was awe-inspiring.

"I don't know if you remember when Reggie hurt his hamstring," Williams said. "But it was supposed to be torn off the bone...I don't know what happened, but it seemed like it was destiny for that team. I don't want to sit here and call it an act of God...but it sure seemed like it."

All General Manager Ron Wolf knew was that White came to Green Bay to win a championship, and he's glad it worked out the way it did.

Wolf said that White, along with Deion Sanders, were the two best players in the history of unrestricted free agency. He was just glad to land White, who helped return the Packers to glory.

Many critics claimed it couldn't be done, but the legendary defensive end kept the faith in taking the Packers to the promised land.

"I can remember Reggie White when he came here. He said if we won the Super Bowl here, it would be like winning a Super Bowl in no other place in the league," Brooks recalled. "And he was totally right."

Then again, prophets usually are.

[HarveyWallbangers]

BRUCE WILKERSON

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/09/13/2/

It's not that often when a player gets a "do-over" on the field, and it happens even less in the offseason. But Bruce Wilkerson was fortunate enough to get that second chance in 1996.

Wilkerson had an opportunity to join the Packers the year before as an unrestricted free agent, but instead elected to sign with the Jacksonville Jaguars. All it took was a little down time for Wilkerson to ponder his future.

"I signed with Jacksonville and during the playoffs that year, I'm sitting at home," Wilkerson, 41, recalled. "We won four football games and lost a lot of close ones. So, I'm sitting at home and the Packers are playing the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Championship game and Ken Ruettgers was hurt.

"I'm sitting there saying, 'This team is a tackle away from playing in the Super Bowl.' So I mean, that gave me the notion the following year that there was a chance this team was special and could do great things."

The 6-foot-5, 305-pound tackle was released by the Jaguars in April 1996 and this time around, he knew exactly where he wanted to go. He called General Manager Ron Wolf and told him he wasn't going to sign with anybody other than Green Bay.

A year earlier, it was Wolf who recruited Wilkerson to Green Bay. But the G.M. wasn't going to try and fool the man who had previously spent his whole professional career playing in warm weather. There was no getting around the frigid Green Bay winters.

"Ron Wolf showed me the temperatures," Wilkerson explained. "He had a board that had the temperatures of every game the year before. He didn't tell me that we were Super Bowl contenders or blah, blah, blah. He said, 'These are our temperatures.'"

This time around, the weather was a non-factor because Wilkerson knew what he was getting into.

"I remember playing with the Raiders and going to Green Bay the day after Christmas, December 26, 1993," Wilkerson recalled. "It was the coldest I had ever been in my life. I played with the Raiders and we played Buffalo, but that day in Green Bay was the coldest I had ever been."

Wilkerson's memory served him right as game-time temperatures that day got down to 1 degree at kickoff. But despite initially signing with Jacksonville due in part to the warmer weather, Wilkerson learned that Green Bay's temps weren't so bad after all.

"If you come in during July and you're up there from when it is warm until it gets cold, it has a totally different effect on your body than it does when you're coming in from somewhere where it's 70 degrees and you're coming in to play and it's 12, not counting the wind chill," Wilkerson explained. "So it totally has a different effect on your body."

Weather wasn't the only difference between Green Bay and the other teams Wilkerson had played on, either.

Playing with the Packers gave Wilkerson a close-up, literally and figuratively, of Green and Gold fans. Initially, this wasn't something Wilkerson was used to.

"Coming from the Raiders, everything in training camp was behind the black fence," Wilkerson said. "Everything was blocked off and all private.

"Then, you come to Green Bay, and everything's wide open. You ride the bicycles, you walk with the fans, you do the whole shebang up until the season and then they put the green fence up. It was cool. It was a shock at first, but it was very cool."

These days Wilkerson, his wife Antoinette, and their two children -- daughter Starkicia, 19, and son Jeremy, 14 -- live in Knoxville, Tenn. Wilkerson keeps busy working as a machinist for an aluminum company and tries to make it to Green Bay for one game in September and one game in October, although he only made it once last season.

Wilkerson was known for riding his Triumph motorcycle while in Green Bay, as well as collecting and restoring John Deere tractors. But he's since switched to a Honda cycle, saying he's "slowed down some," and he no longer has time for his John Deere hobby, either.

"It's time, basically," Wilkerson said. "You've got something that you enjoy, but your time restraints kind of kill you. My son is into golden glove boxing, he's been doing that for about a year. I laugh and joke with it and say that I am almost a soccer mom. I'm trying to take him as much as I can."

With his busy schedule, it's also not easy for Wilkerson to keep in contact with his old teammates these days.

"I'm not a stay-in-contact type of guy," Wilkerson said. "I mean, I probably talked to Aaron Taylor two-and-a-half, three years ago. It's been awhile. I talked to Frankie (Winters) this past football season."

Despite falling out of touch with the guys, Wilkerson still catches himself thinking about that '96 Super Bowl team. He said that although he started the last game of the year and throughout the playoffs, that wasn't necessarily planned when he arrived in Green Bay.

"Basically I was brought in there to be an insurance policy," Wilkerson recalled. "Ruettgers was hurt when I came in and they had John Michels and Gary Brown and they wanted to see them play. At one point, a friend of mine (defensive end Sean Jones) supposedly told Coach Holmgren that we had a guy over on the sideline that happened to be a better man for the job. They had those two guys, but they gave me a try and everything worked out."

This was a far cry from where Wilkerson initially was as a Packer, but he came to the team's rescue by not allowing a sack in the team's first two postseason games. When his number was called, Wilkerson's skills were still sharp in part because of Reggie White.

After all, he was facing White every day in practice, something that reminded him of his college days at the University of Tennessee when they were teammates.

"Reggie was in his younger days when we were in college, and I cut my teeth against Reggie," Wilkerson said. "Going against Reggie and Mike Cofer was one of those things that enabled me to play on Sunday. To come to Green Bay and play against him, he was an older guy, I was an older guy, it would be kind of funny because if we got going against each other, Mike Holmgren would call us pumped up Tennessee boys.

"And you know, I hate to lose. But going against Reggie, you're going to lose quite a bit. But it would just elevate the tempo of practice. It was fun. I just considered it a learning experience. If you can go against one of the best guys in the NFL every day in practice and do a decent job, that would make the games easier."

That sounds fitting, especially since Wilkerson's decision to sign with Green Bay in '96 made life easier for the Packers, too.

[HarveyWallbangers]

GABE WILKINS

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/09/14/2/

Although his mother ably raised him, defensive end Gabe Wilkins lacked a strong male presence in his life when his father died at a young age. Reggie White helped fill that void.

"He was more like a father figure," Wilkins said. "I thanked him in prayers. I appreciated the fact God let a guy like that come into my life because I needed it."

White served as a role model for Wilkins throughout the 1996 season. In that Super Bowl-winning year, Wilkins played in each game and backed up both White and fellow defensive end Sean Jones.

But Wilkins followed them in ways that go beyond the depth chart. He learned how to prepare himself as a professional. He mimicked the dedication of the veteran defensive ends, working out year-round in Lambeau Field and attending every meeting 10 to 15 minutes early.

"Those small things like that ultimately had a lot to do with us making it to the Super Bowl," Wilkins said.

Wilkins soaked in their knowledge, racking up 18 tackles and three sacks that season. And he became a starter after Jones retired before the 1997 season. Wilkins, however, remained a callow player in 1996 -- three years removed from playing at Gardner-Webb University, a 4,000-student NAIA school.

"I didn't have a clue. I was ... green, not having a great understanding of what it took to compete," Wilkins said. " '96 was a real eye opener for me."

Wilkins' eyes focused on something else with less than three minutes left in the third quarter of Super Bowl XXXI. Having just sacked Drew Bledsoe for an 8-yard loss, White needed a rest. Always observing White, Wilkins was studying the Hall of Famer's pass rush angle on the JumboTron replay. Intently focused on White's technique, Wilkins did not hear defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur barking at him to enter the game.

"I was paying attention," Wilkins said. "But I wasn't paying attention to the right thing."

Defensive line coach Larry Brooks finally commanded Wilkins' attention, and he entered the game. He made an impact from then on, collecting one solo tackle and batting down a pass intended for tight end Ben Coates. That culminated a strong performance on the NFL's grandest stage.

"You don't believe that it's as major as it is until you're in the middle of it," Wilkins said.

Now Wilkins' major role consists of raising his four daughters in the 40,000-person town of Spartanburg, S.C. During Wilkins' playing days -- four years with the Packers and two with the San Francisco 49ers -- his wife, Ansley, took care of the kids. He now understands how hard she worked.

"I wasn't there all the time. Playing football takes a lot of your time." Wilkins said. "I didn't appreciate my wife as far as taking care of the kids. I didn't understand how much it took to keep four kids in line."

Now Wilkins, 34, assumes a lot of the child care responsibility and for good reason. Wilkins wants to provide the paternal role he never had. Gabe was reared by his mother, Annie, since the age of seven. At that age he lost his father, James, when a truck driver veered off course and struck him as he walked home one night.

Aside from overseeing his financial portfolio and playing in the occasional golf game, Wilkins completely devotes himself to his four girls: Mia, 5, Chemoya, 10, Alexis, 11, and Gabrielle, 14. His wife works part-time as a coordinator at a state-funded day care center, and he mirrors her job at their home.

"My children come first. Right now that's the only thing at the top of my list," he said. "They get my full attention."

Wilkins, who retired in 2000, eventually may enter the real estate business but does not want to work until after Mia turns 10. He, however, foresees another role if and when his daughters have children.

"Hopefully one day they'll have a son that might want to play," Wilkins said. "And I can teach him how."

Just like White did.

[HarveyWallbangers]

BRIAN WILLIAMS

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/09/15/4/

Brian Williams hadn't been around long, but he knew one thing: If the 1996 season ended with anything less than a Super Bowl victory, the year would be considered a colossal disappointment.

In 1995, when Williams was drafted in the third round out of the University of Southern California, he didn't have the season he hoped for and the Packers lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the postseason for the third consecutive year.

Because the Packers came so close the previous two seasons, they didn't just want to reach Super Bowl XXXI in New Orleans. They expected it.

"We knew we could get that far because we just got to the NFC Championship game the year before," Williams, 33, said. "It was kind of like nothing else was going to cut it that season. I think everyone had it in their minds that that was the goal.

"So many of the people who were on the team, especially the ones there from the year before, could really taste it."

Just as it was time for the Packers to get over the hump as a team, it was also time for the 6-foot-1, 235-pound linebacker to show what he could do on the field. After all, the Packers invested the 73rd overall pick on Williams, but he played primarily on special teams in his rookie campaign.

"I guess to me, more than not, it was kind of like a make-or-break season," Williams explained. "They drafted me the year before, and I had a groin injury most of that year and I couldn't show them what I could do."

George Koonce moved from 'Plugger' (right outside linebacker) to the middle in order to create a spot for Williams on the field, and the move paid dividends the whole season. Williams finished with 95 total tackles, second on the team only to Koonce, who tallied 117 stops.

Though Williams said several people played a key role in the defense's success, it was the late Fritz Shurmur, the defensive coordinator, who helped him the most.

"As the season went on, I guess it was really Fritz teaching me and allowing me to do more things on defense," Williams said. "I guess that was me being more consistent and making plays."

It wasn't a secret that Shurmur was an outstanding coordinator who had the ability to teach his players and get the most out of them. What people may not have realized, however, was that Shurmur found a way to utilize Williams, who was the type of linebacker the Packers didn't have in previous seasons.

"The way I played linebacker, I was probably more athletic and able to do more things than probably what they were used to," Williams noted. "Fritz was used to the linebacker coming down and destroying the lineman. But (the athleticism) allowed us to be more creative with the defense and let us change things up a lot."

According to Williams, Shurmur also had an uncanny ability to confuse opposing offenses quite regularly.

"Teams didn't know what we were going to do from game to game," Williams explained. "We were probably the first team in the league around that time that ran a 3-3 defense with three down linemen and three linebackers and five defensive backs. It's like a nickel defense but we would line that up against team's base offenses."

Williams said he will never forget the fiery passion or confidence that Shurmur displayed and how the team eventually began to mirror Shurmur's personality.

"Whatever Fritz put up there, we ran it," Williams said with a laugh. "Fritz brought the attitude that, 'We don't care what offense you put on the field, we're going to put the defense we want to on the field.' Fritz was also a tough guy. That's what he brought to the table and everybody took that personality from him."

Shurmur clearly had a profound effect on Williams' play, but he continued to have unfortunate luck with injuries. In fact, his Packers' career ended on injured reserve in 2000. He played for the Detroit Lions in 2001 and 2002, but then he suffered a shoulder injury in the preseason finale of the 2003 season. Williams spent the year on injured reserve and decided he'd had enough.

Williams acknowledged that over the years the injuries began to take a toll on him.

"I had so much bad luck with injuries in football," Williams said. "Once I got over one, it seemed like another one came. It was a situation where I kept coming back, but then it was like, 'Man, I got one more time that I am going to make this comeback.'

"Then you get healthy again and you get hurt again and you say this is really the last time. I think I said that to myself three times."

And though he may be done with football, Williams still remains very busy these days. He resides in Dallas and is currently working on land development. Recently, Williams put the finishing touches on his first project, a 49-lot subdivision, and admits he's already looking forward to getting started on the next one.

Despite spending much of his time operating his business, Williams stays in shape by playing tennis, something he has done for over a year now. He also follows the Packers very closely, and he still makes time for a few of his old teammates as well.

Williams said he often speaks with Keith McKenzie, and occasionally to Antonio Freeman, Dorsey Levens, and Santana Dotson, and that he will always have a special bond with the guys he played with.

In fact, because everyone expected greatness from that '96 team, Williams admitted he felt added pressure to come through for his teammates.

"I had Reggie White in front of me, I had LeRoy Butler and Eugene Robinson behind me and I just wanted to hold up my end of the bargain," Williams explained. "And really, I think one aspect that was brought up during the time, and Eugene talked about this a lot, was us being accountable to each other on the field.

"It was a total team effort and we knew what was at stake."

Clearly, Williams and the Packers realized those expectations and then some.

[HarveyWallbangers]

TYRONE WILLIAMS

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/09/16/1/

Green Bay is one of the smallest cities in all of professional sports. To some players coming out of college, that's not an exciting prospect. But to others, a small-town atmosphere is ideal.

When the Packers selected Tyrone Williams in the third round of the 1996 NFL Draft, it wasn't really a matter of whether the city of Green Bay was too big or too small.

To him, it just felt right.

Williams was coming from the University of Nebraska where he played in three national championship games, winning two of them. He had two first-team All-Big Eight seasons and usually played his best football in big games. In short, he was a winner.

Plus, Williams was accustomed to the type of football atmosphere that existed in Titletown. So, when he landed in Green Bay in his rookie season, it was a good fit for both parties.

"It wasn't too bad," Williams, 33, said. "The only reason I say that is because I was coming from Nebraska and I kind of knew how a small town works. I know guys who came from USC and at first, they didn't know what to do. But to me, it was so similar to Nebraska it was an easy transition."

Williams played in the nickel and dime packages as a rookie and helped the Packers win Super Bowl XXXI in New Orleans. He played seven seasons and became a mainstay on defense in Green Bay, but for how much he enjoyed his time here, Williams didn't fully appreciate it until he left.

"It was so much fun," Williams explained. "You don't really notice it until you go to another team. I mean, once you go to another team...you start to appreciate the old feeling that two or three years ago, this was this way, and that was that way, and it was so great.'

"So, it's crazy. But the memories are going to be there because it's kind of hard to put a team together and be close and be really like a family and have fun. And on top of that it was genuine. It was a special time in my life, I'll never forget it."

Williams sat out all of last year after playing with the Atlanta Falcons and Dallas Cowboys following eight seasons with the Packers. During that time, the 5-foot-11, 195-pound cornerback realized how much the game really meant to him, and he's doing everything he can to make an NFL comeback, including working out at the IMG Academy in Florida.

"My drive is still there and I found that out this year," Williams said. "At first, it was like, 'Man, I'm tired of football.'

"But taking a year off refreshes you so much. You look out there and you see guys like Deion Sanders, Dale Carter, and Terrell Buckley, and it kind of gives you a little inspiration."

While Williams finds motivation in watching some of the older players maintain an NFL career, he often finds inspiration in being around some of the younger guys, too.

"I'm out there with a lot of college kids that are coming out," Williams explained. "Working out with kids like (Heisman Trophy winner) Reggie Bush, it kind of gets you pumped up about playing again. Everybody is over there."

Williams and his wife Shantel have three kids, Michael, Cameron, and Tyra. They reside in Bradenton, Fla., and though Tyrone is working on his NFL comeback, he is also involved in real estate, owning property in Atlanta, Florida, Houston, and Kansas City.

Though many miles removed from Green Bay, Williams said that doesn't change how he or his family feels about the city.

"My kids and wife, everybody loves Green Bay so we keep up on what they're doing," Williams said. "And Green Bay is definitely always going to be a part of me."

At this point, Williams said one of the most significant things to happen to him since he left Green Bay and played in a Super Bowl is renewing the quest to get back to the big game.

"It's a lot of fun once you go there," Williams explained. "If you've never been there, I feel sorry for you because it's definitely something you should experience at least once in your career."

Whether that happens again for him or not remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain: Williams is going to go down as one of the best football players in Nebraska's history.

"Last year they sent me a letter about how they voted me into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame and they are going to retire my jersey," Williams proudly stated. "This fall I'll be going in, and if I'm playing ball I won't be there, but I'll still get inducted so it'll be a good thing, either way."

Williams, who keeps both of his Nebraska championship rings as well as his Super Bowl ring in a safe deposit box, said he's very happy to have been a part of Nebraska and Green Bay Packer history.

"It doesn't get any better than that," Williams said. "I mean, to leave my high school and go to the University of Nebraska and to leave there and go to an organization like Green Bay, I mean, I fulfilled every dream I ever had."