When/where/how did you meet a packer?

[CheeseHusker]

I lived across the street from Marco Rivera for several years. My wife painted cartoon characters in one of his sons' bedroom. There was a golf course behind us and I used to see guys playing all the time... usually Longwell and whatever punter they had at the time. Saw Favre there once.

I also knew Ahman Green a little bit from college; he is two days younger than me and we started at Nebraska the same year and lived in the same dorm.

 

[HardRightEdge]

Don Chandler made an appearance at our youth football practice, I'd guess 1966, give or take. After a couple of questions from us kids, everybody was just standing there staring at each other, so I went ahead and goaded him into demonstrating a punt, against his protestations that he was in street clothes. Coach was not happy, but Chandler gave it shot. I was not impressed. As I recall, it was a high punt but not that far...I'd guess the equivalent of 30 yards from scrimmage in my dim recollection.

It struck me that this punting thing might be more impressive on TV than it actually is, perhaps overlooking the fact he was wearing dress shoes and kicking a ball not quite up to NFL standards. I asked him if he could improve on that kick with a second try, but he demurred.

My takeaway from my underwhelmed impression was that I might be able to play to this game. I was almost right .

 

[ivo610]

I lived across the street from Marco Rivera for several years. My wife painted cartoon characters in one of his sons' bedroom. There was a golf course behind us and I used to see guys playing all the time... usually Longwell and whatever punter they had at the time. Saw Favre there once.

I also knew Ahman Green a little bit from college; he is two days younger than me and we started at Nebraska the same year and lived in the same dorm.

Did you like ahman?

 

[Shawnsta3]

I met William Henderson at a campground snowmobiling event where he signed a ball for me.

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I also met Gilbert and his brother when I was younger.

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I met KGB a few times out on Legend lake in Keshena, WI when my uncle was doing some landscaping work for him.

And finally, I saw Al Harris once at the Fox River Mall. He was looking at shirts and I walked up to him and said "Hey Al!" And once I got up to him I noticed he stunk like b.o.

 

[maxlives]

Summer of 1966, I was working a solo shift at Wimpy's Standard station on Highway 41 outside Allenton, WI when a black Lincoln Continental pulled in to my pumps. I approached the driver, a very large man in a black turtle neck and brown garbardine sports coat and asked if he wanted to fill'erup. I noticed four more rather large men in the car all involved in conversation and pretty much ignoring me. I filled 'er up, checked the oil and tire pressure and was starting to wash the windows when all four doors opened and out stepped Fuzzy Thurston, Bart Starr, Paul Horning, Max McGee, and Jimmy Taylor. Speechless, I took the credit card from Fuzzy and ran it through the machine, grabbed a handful of Packers Hall of Fame brochures we had in a display, and in a demonstration of the world's biggest idiot of all time, mumbled something completely incoherent and handed them each a brochure as they climbed back in the car. Now, I am sure they were all talking to me; I recall somebody asked me if I played football, "those are some pretty big shoulders..."somebody said, but I was as star struck as a I could get and the whole episode is a fog. They left me empty handed, except for a $8.60 credit card reciept signed by Fred Thurston. I had that reciept for nearly 40 years but lost it when we moved to Maryland in 2002. I met Paul Horning once again in Birmingham, AL at a BBQ joint and had a really good conversation with him where he told me he remembered that day!!! I think he was just being nice but it left me with a warm feeling in my chest. One of my favorite memories.

 

[VolvoD]

Since going out to Green Bay the past several years we have met quite a few players (getting autographs etc.), but one of my best memories in recent years was our trip in 2010. As we were flying home I was telling someone beside us how great our trip was, and the excitement of the game etc etc etc. Well, as we all leave the plane my wife and I are the last ones off, and they guy behind us who came up and said he was listening to my stories and he wanted to "complete our trip", flashing his super bowl ring, I recognized it was Antonio Freeman. I couldn't believe it...I was just a teenager when I saw him on tv. he was really nice, and autographed our ball, and stopped for pictures. I thought it was really neat. In most of our experiences, the packers players (current and former) are pretty approachable.

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(and as you can seen from my screenname photo we also met John Kuhn...he is from the same area we grew up)

 

[rodell330]

Met Charles Woodson while on a recruting trip for UM as well as Desmond Howard. It was the annual Ohio State vs Michigan game. I was one of 5 recruits who got to be in the locker room and stand on the sidelines during the game. Well long story short they ended up losing that game and evenually i chose to go to Ohio State. Go Bucks!!!