Nice article on Forrest Gregg

[JBlood]

who according to Lombardi was "the finest player I ever coached."

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Sunday, July 3, 2005



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[net]

I was holding a microphone about a foot away from Forrest's mouth during an afternoon press conference one week when he was coaching the Packers. About 2 minutes in, some dork from a TV station arrived late(as usual) and tried to push his way forward with the camera to get a better shot. His pushing pushed the whole mass of reporters forward and my mike nearly struck Gregg in the face.

Looking at me he growled, "Son, you came very close from giving me a tonsilectomy". He smiled. I was lucky.

 

[JBlood]

I had completely forgotten that he had coached the Bengals to the Championship game of the '81 season.

Net, are you still in the press corps?

 

[PackerTraxx]

It would have been a great story if Gregg had been successful in
GB. I always liked him. I think he was the type of coach that could do well with a veteran team, but did not have the patience to develop players. Of course, that's what he would have had to do to make GB successful.JMHO

 

[PWT36]

Forrst Gregg was a great offensive lineman with Green Bay Packers. One tough "son of a gun" and always there to play with intensity.As Packer coach, well, he sure wasn't a a Vince Lombardi. It looked like he wanted to get rid of all players who played under Former Packer Head coach Bart Starr . In fact, he cut many of players who played under Bart Starr, it was said that he thought they were not loyal to him. He cut them, hoping that his players in reserve would step up and to the job, the reverse happen and Packers won only 4 games that year. He was under fire at Green Bay and took a head Coaching job a SMU, his alma mater and did a good job of resurrecting that program which had just about been destroyed by NCAA for recruiting violations. Many players under Gregg at G.B. complained that he was too tough during his many two-a-days during training camp. And blamed him for the fading of the team in the latter part of the season due being" beaten up" by their own team mates during training camp and practices. One of the most vocal players who was on the Gregg's team is retired Packer LB Brian Noble who is very critical of Gregg's way of handling his players, his training camp and practice methods. Brian said he thought these contributed to Packer teams under Gregg, fading in last part of the season. Majority of the coaches don't hold training camps or practices like Gregg did back in Gregg's coaching days at GB for the very reasons Noble stated.

 

[PackerChick]

Too bad he should have been more successful in GB. Why was he so bad?

 

[JBlood]

I wouldn't pay too much attention to what Noble says. The guy is a classic second-guesser who likes listening to himself. He is absolutely terrible on the radio after Packer games. I think his big mouth was the main reason he hasn't been hired by the Pack, since he was interested in a coaching job the last few years. I think great players like Gregg are frequently poor coaches because they don't know how to teach things that for them came naturally.

 

[Philtration]

I remember Forrest Gregg as the coach of a 4-12 team who could not compete with a Bears team that was far superior so he resorted to cheap shots and dirty football. He not only accepted it he encouraged it. Matt Suey being leveled long after the whistle, Jim McMahon

 

[Bruce]

Phil, Phil, Phil ...

I remember Forrest Gregg as the coach of a 4-12 team who could not compete with a Bears team that was far superior so he resorted to cheap shots and dirty football. He not only accepted it he encouraged it. Matt Suey being leveled long after the whistle, Jim McMahon

 

[net]

Most of you are missing the obvious point...and one of the reasons the Packers were truly bad for so long: personnel.

During that era--post-Lombardi to Ron Wolf...the team was run by an executive committee that was so tight they squeaked. The organization was trying to keep expenses down as they didn't know how revenue sharing and TV revenues would go. So other teams landed and kept the best players. They had Ted Hendrichs but wouldn't pay him. A few they did...Lynn ****ey and James Lofton had nice contracts...but the supporting cast was mediocre. Also the personnel department was very bad. They kept drafting duds, even though they were in a good position often to upgrade. Ron Wolf changed the whole philosophy in Green Bay.
Bart Starr had a few players, but they didn't fit Gregg's philosophy. Gregg also had Lindy Infante running his offense in Cincinnati and didn't have him in Green Bay and the Packers defense was never that good, Gregg found a way to wreck Starr's offense(which was fairly good) to create a team, I think, that was worse than the Lindy Infante squads prior to Ron Wolf.

 

[packedhouse01]

Net, your point on Gregg's coaches hit the nail right on the head. He didn't have Lindy running his offense. The best head coaches are smart enough to surround themselves with great coaches. Coaches have to be teachers first. Head coaches have to be motivators. I can understand why players wouldn't like this type of coach. He was tough, demanded excellence and made them practice. Players aren't used to that. I do believe that had he surrounded himself with quality assistants his coaching style would have been successful. Comparing that era to this one is interesting because I think Mike Sherman has had the same problem, I don't think he has surrounded himself with great coaches either. I think he took a huge step up in his coaching staff this year. I always liked Forrest Gregg, but he didn't do a very good job in Green Bay.

 

[IPBprez]

In one of the most memorable comments about Lombardi's hold on his team, Gregg once said, "when Lombardi told us to sit down, we didn't look for chairs."

Here, here --- I can just imagine what kind of hell McKenzie would have had with Lombardi.

 

[digsthepack]

Yeah, I remember that Payton play you recall from the perspective of a Bears fan. Lost in your analogy is the fact that Walter has stiff-armed the face mask of CB Mark Lee and was hanging on taking our player with him as they both collided with the bench.

The Suhey and McMahon hits are legitimate black marks on our team under Gregg's tenure, but let's get the facts straight on that Payton incident. If anything, Sweetness should have been flagged for grabbing the facemask and hanging on....a 15 yard personal foul.

 

[IPBprez]

Sweetness - cause a penalty? ....Awww, you're kidding, right...?
No.. not Sweetness......

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

 

[NDPackerFan]

Yeah, Phil, let's talk about ****** for a second. How about Ditka not giving the ball to Payton on the 1 yard line in the SB instead deferring to the fat rookie fridge? or how about the classless act of the '85 Bears coming out with their Super Bowl shuffle before even playing the game? Granted, they were good but they could have done one thing the Packers have always done - act like you've been there before! Coming out with that video prior to the game showed a bunch of arrogant, classless morons. Something you should really be proud of too.

The "Charles Martin" incident, I'll give you because that was absolutely stupid. I agree; however, with some of these posters that Payton should have been flagged for a personal foul after that flagrant facemask on Mark Lee.

 

[PackerTraxx]

I also lost respect for Ditka when he let the Fridge score rather than Peyton but that was typical of him, totally classless.

As far as the play on the sidelines with Peyton and Lee, digsthepack got it exactly right, Peyton is the one that should have been penalized. I was also at that game and it happened right in front of us. Horrible call by the refs.

The Bears should not be the pot calling the kettle black. Their players under Ditka were just sneakier. Then there's Abe Gibron ...

 

[Philtration]

I agree about Ditka. There is no way that Perry should score a TD in the Super Bowl over Payton. Ditka lost control of himself at the end and became an embarrassment. It was time for him to go and I rag on any Bears fan that wants to bring him back. I was talking about Forrest Gregg allowing his team to get out of control and it defiantly seemed as if they had his blessing on the whole matter. His smiling and smirking about it spoke volumes about his character. The Bears as defending Super Bowl champs had a target on their backs in 86 no doubt, but the only games that had any of the cheap shot crap occur that season were the two games with the Packers. Charles Martin had one goal on that day and it was to try to hurt as many players as possible including taking a cheap shot to do it. Gregg let that happen and I can't see anyone defending that kind of WWF bulls**t to happen in a NFL game. A great player, but a questionable person.