After They Were Packers

Where do the heroes go when the cheering ends? In his follow-up to the best-selling Downfield!, Jerry Poling reveals the lives of the 1997 Super Bowl champions after they left the Packers. Also included are former greats Lynn Dickey, Don Majkowski, and others from before the ?New Glory Years.?

The story of a team, a town, and a leader: Vince Lombardi’s first year as head coach of the Green Bay Packers, and how he turned them into a powerhouse. The once-vaunted Green Bay Packers were a laughingstock by the late 1950s. They hadn’t fielded a winning team in more than a decade, and were close to losing their franchise to another city. They were in desperate need of a savior—and he arrived in a wood-paneled station wagon in the dead of winter from New York City. In a single year, Vince Lombardi—the grizzled coach who took no bull—transformed a team of underachievers into winners and resurrected a Wisconsin city known for its passion for sport. He would lead them to championship to championship, and bring out the best in players including Bart Starr, Jim Taylor, Willie Davis, Forrest Gregg, and many more. From an award-winning sportswriter, That First Season is “a compelling read about perhaps the most compelling coach ever to stride an NFL sideline” (Washington Times). “Richly detailed in seamless prose, this is historical sportswriting at its finest.”—Lars Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of The Mannings: The Fall and Rise of a Football Family

Can't get enough of the Packers? Discover a unique and fascinating historical survey of Green Bay's early town football teams. Colorful accounts of individual team members, descriptions of significant games, fan and community reactions, and snippets of actual newspaper stories will take you on the a journey from 1895 to the day in 1921 when the Packers became founding members of the National Football League. Included are photographs of Green Bay town teams and some of their earliest opponents.

The 1972 Green Bay Packers were not expected to challenge for a playoff spot, or even to top their four victories from the season before. But the players were an eclectic group of over-achievers, 20 of whom were brand new to the team. Despite disheartening decisions by a questionable head coach, they gelled almost immediately and by season's end became the only Packers team throughout the 1970s to earn a division title. This book details how they succeeded beyond all expectations and tells one of the great stories in pro football history.

Presents a collection of anecdotes from the team's celebrated history, describing such celebrated figures as Curly Lambeau, Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr, and Reggie White, and their many triumphs.