LAMBEAU LEGENDS
BART STARR, BRETT FAVRE, AARON RODGERS. THREE REASONS GREEN BAY IS STILL KNOWN AS TITLETOWN.
The Green Bay Packers are among the NFL’s most exemplary franchises. With four Super Bowl titles spread over three eras, every generation of Packers fans has seen the team reach the mountaintop. ey have also been witnesses to some of the best quarterback play the sport has ever seen. Here is a look at each Super Bowl-winning signal-caller in franchise history.
BART STARR
e best way to describe the “it” qualities needed in a great quarterback – leadership, guts, confidence – is to mention the name “Bart Starr.” e unquestioned leader of the 1960s Green Bay Packers dynasty, he is remembered for winning the first two Super Bowls (and Super Bowl MVP awards) and the most famous quarterback sneak in league history.
Starr, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977, was dra ed by the Packers in 1956 in the 17th round. By 1960, he had taken hold of starting duties and didn’t let go for more than a decade.
Under Starr’s leadership, the Packers became pro football’s first dynasty. Until Tom Brady’s recent run, Starr was the only quarterback with five league championship rings. He retired with a 9-1 postseason record and the NFL’s highest career completion percentage (57.4 percent).
e most iconic moment of Starr’s career came in the 1967 NFL Championship Game. Forever known as the Ice Bowl for its whitened field and sub-zero temperatures, the game was a pivotal point in professional football history. On the line was a berth in the second “Super Bowl,” then a novel concept for a championship game against the AFL.
An emerging power, the Dallas Cowboys came to Lambeau Field looking to dismantle the Packers. e soon-to-be-named America’s Team was on its way to do so when running back Dan Reeves connected with Lance Rentzel on a 50-yard touchdown pass. e trick play and extra point gave Dallas a 17-14 lead to open the fourth quarter.
Still trailing by three with under five minutes le in the game, Starr led the Packers on a nearly 70-yard drive that brought Green Bay a few feet from a game-winning touchdown. A er a few failed rushing attempts and taking their last timeout in the waning seconds, Starr told coach Vince Lombardi that he could sneak it in.
“Run it, and let’s get the hell out of here,” the coach exclaimed.
Scooting on the ice-laden grass behind Hall of Fame guard Jerry Kramer, Starr reached the end zone for the game-winning score.
More impressive than the 1966 MVP’s on-field success was his grace off it. ese sentiments came to the surface a er Starr died in May 2019.
“It’s impossible to describe the way Bart lived his life unless you could be in his presence and watch him treat every human being, every skin color, every religion, every nationality . . . he treated them all the same all the time,” Packers teammate Bill Curry told the Montgomery Advertiser a er Starr’s public memorial service.
“It didn’t matter if he’d just won the world championship and was [named] most valuable player of the Super Bowl, or if he just got ear-holed and got his teeth knocked out, he was the same. It was the kind of example that we all know it’s impossible to be as good as he was, but we have to try.”
And it wasn’t limited to those he played with.
“He was a perfectionist. What a gentleman,” Brett Favre said of Starr at a celebrity golf tournament in June 2019. “Just a class act. And when he spoke, you listened. But most of the things he always said were very thoughtful and supportive.”
BRETT FAVRE
Brett Favre had one of the league’s strongest arms and loved to freelance plays on a whim. Basically, he was the anti-Bart Starr.
But Green Bay loved him all the same.
Favre came to Green Bay a er a one-year burnout in Atlanta. It was the greatest trade in franchise history. Giving up a first-round pick was well worth having a quarterback who would go on to start every game for 15-plus years, throw for 61,655 yards and 442 touchdowns wearing Green and Gold.
In Green Bay, true love only comes a er winning a championship. Favre led the Packers to two Super Bowl appearances (XXXI and XXXII) and took the Lombardi Trophy home a er Super Bowl XXXI. It was the franchise’s first championship since the Lombardi Era. Favre was nearly flawless in the 35-21 victory over the New England Patriots. He finished the game with 246 passing yards and two touchdowns and rushed for a score. His legacy was set.
Fans fell in love with his gunslinging style of quarterbacking. A mix of Archie Manning, Ken Stabler and Roger Staubach, Favre ignored conventional wisdom when it came to throwing mechanics. He could rifle the ball into any window without setting his feet and loved to scramble around the pocket to keep plays alive. Edge-of-your-seat plays came in doses with him under center.
“We have so much to be thankful for and as I think back to our time in Green Bay, I certainly thank God for the opportunity to play and for so long, and to play in the best place to play football in the world,” Favre said at his jersey retirement and Ring of Honor ceremony in 2015.
His down-home demeanor, country lifestyle and recklessness on the gridiron created a certain persona about the signal-caller. While it was true to a certain extent, it’s important not to dismiss his football I.Q. One doesn’t simply hold the record for attempts, completions, yards and touchdowns without brain to go with brawn.