I’m taking a sporcle quiz the other day, and I try the retired numbers of the NFL quiz. The Packers, surprisingly, don’t have many numbers retired at all.
One of the numbers retired, however is 92. Reggie White. Seriously? Why on earth would they retire his number, but not Jim Taylor, Paul Hornung, Curly Lambeau, Jerry Kramer, Forrest Gregg, etc?
There were a ton of great players in the early 60’s. Why skip them and include Reggie White? Was it part of his contract when he signed with the Packers?
Was he an active Packer at the time of his death? I thought he retired. For some reason, I have a memory of a retirement ceremony where his jersey was under glass in a wooden frame.
The impact he had during his years as a Packer (even if he may not have been quite as good as he was as a younger player with the Eagles)
When he signed with the Packers, as the first high-profile player to switch teams in the modern free-agency era, it was seen by many to symbolize a change in the prevailing attitude (through the previous 20-odd seasons) that the Packers were a second-tier franchise, at best.
His sudden death, at a young age, shocked many people, and led to immediate moves to honor him.
He also changed the perception of Green Bay as a destination for free agents, particularly African-American free agents.
Before White, there was a serious perception (whether warranted or not) that not only was GB a poor franchise, but that the community was less than welcoming to African-American players (and people).
Reggie White, after signing (and “different races have different strengths” speech notwithstanding), went out of his way to publicly dispel that perception, was active in the community, and aided in recruiting other minority players who otherwise might not have considered GB.
So it’s safe to say that, besides his play (which was magnificent), his off-the-field actions were instrumental (at least in the eyes of the franchise) in turning GB into the championship team it became.
That, in my eyes, justifies his number retirement from a franchise standpoint.
I’ve often heard that black players who’ve spent time in cities like Green Bay (or Salt Lake City, for that matter) say that what makes life there hard is NOT racist fans or media, but all the LITTLE things that make life enjoyable.
That is, if you’re a 23 year old single black millionaire, you want to have some FUN in your off time. You want to go out and dance, have a few drinks, meet women! And that’s hard to do in a town like Green Bay.
And even if a black man is a little older, has a wife and kids, and generally leads a quiet lifestyle, there are all sorts of small frustrations in small, mostly white cities. Like… there aren’t any radio stations that play music you like. There aren’t any restaurants that serve food you like. There aren’t any barbers who know how to cut black people’s hair.
A black free agent linebacker probably doesn’t look at Wisconsin and worry that Cheeseheads are Klansmen. He probably DOES think to himself, “The people are nice, but it looks cold and boring to me. Probably not the best option I have.”
It would be kind of fun if each year they put out public speculation about plans to retire Brett Favre’s number, then announce they’ve changed their mind.
The Packers have actually recognized these sorts of things. I know that they bring in African-American hair stylists from Milwaukee on a regular basis, as well as caterers from African-American restaurants. It’s not the same as having those sorts of things always available to you, I admit.
When I was a kid in Green Bay in the 1970s, the city was pretty much lily-white. Out of 100K or so people, there were fewer than 100 African-Americans, IIRC. (The populations of American Indians and Hmong refugees were bigger.) Over the past few decades, there’ve been more African-Americans (and Hispanics) moving into the city, but they’re still a very small minority.
I was asking more in the sense of “how practical is it to drive there?” I could have looked up the distance myself, but I don’t know what Wisconsin roads and traffic are like.
I figured the Packers would do such things (and would assume teams like the Utah Jazz do the same), but didn’t know for sure. That’s good to hear.
Thing is, MOST of the NFL’s players are black guys from the South. Green Bay may be a lovely place filled with wonderful people, but it’s STILL both an incredible change from what the typical young black guy from Louisiana or Alabama is used to AND the opposite of what he was dreaming about.
He may LEARN to love it once he’s there, but that doesn’t mean he’s thrilled to hear he’s been drafted by or traded to the Packers.
It’s a very easy drive (I just drove it yesterday, coming back to Chicago from my parents’ place in Green Bay). I-43 goes directly from Green Bay to downtown Milwaukee. It’s almost always less than a 2-hour drive. (The Packers used to play some of their home games in Milwaukee; they’d almost always take buses down there.)
About the only times that there’s any significant amount of traffic on I-43 are before and after Packer games (a lot of fans who go to the games live in the Milwaukee area), and during deer hunting season. My wife, who’s from Chicago, often remarks on just how empty that road seems to be, compared to Chicago.