Welcome back to The Coach Clarahanson Show !!! In Coach’s Humble Opinion: The Packers picked the right game to lose... With the opener of gun deer season being the main focus of real men throughout the state last weekend, it spared the Packers excess public criticism for dropping the ball (literally, as it turns out) because most fellas outside of cell service weren’t paying much attention to them anyway – either sleeping off hangovers from opening day celebratory exuberance (potentially including a trip to town for a motorboat ride at the local gentlemen’s club), or perhaps tipping a few too many back during an extended Sheepshead game Saturday night, or maybe just partaking in Sunday sundown pole barn assembly line butchery (Bears fans relegated to removing the tallow, of course). But there’s more to it… it was an AFC game. In terms of NFC playoff tie-breakers, it’s an ok game to lose (see also last year’s loss to the Chargers giving the Packers a leg up over the Saints, who had more NFC losses even though both teams’ overall records were 13-3). So in the end, this game will probably be overlooked in terms of playoff seeding, whereas the Vikings and Buccaneers games will not. Another thing that got woefully overlooked this weekend: the deer heart. It’s probably the most overlooked muscle on a deer. If you’re not saving the deer heart, you are missing out on the most tender, delicious strips of steak that a deer has to offer. As my special pre-Christmas gift to you, the loyal reader, here’s a link to Coach’s favorite deer heart recipe (easy and delicious) … click on link! The tricks are to unfold the heart (open it like a book) into 3 slabs – don’t cut it into cross sectional steaks. Then, grill it quickly on very high heat for a very short time. Don’t pan fry it or cook it until it’s “done” to your liking for a normal steak, cook it RARE – it will continue to cook when you remove it from the heat (and even a slightly overcooked heart will turn grey and taste like a shoe). …and that’s probably why people don’t save the heart, because they don’t know how to properly cook it. Unfortunately, Coach’s 30-06 bullet obliterated the heart of his victim Sunday morning so I could not save it; however, a gentle slice of the ticker by my broadhead during early bow season afforded me my favorite Fall treat earlier this year. So remember: save the heart, and undercook it using the recipe link I provided. You’ll be super glad you did! ...at least, in my humble opinion. Create A Seam Here – X’s & O’s about the game or a scheme We lost. So why is everyone so happy with it? LaFleur and Rodgers seem to have bought into the Mark Murphy “nice try, have a participation trophy” philosophy of football. They are actually saying things like, “we feel good about this game, we had a good week of practice”. No, Billy, this is not the way of Lambeau or Lombardi. Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. The logic goes something like: “the Colts are a Top 5 team, and we almost beat them at their place, we went to overtime.” “Almost beat them” means we lost… This is loser logic, and it comes straight from the head of the organization, Mark Murphy. This confusion about a “moral victory” even permeates Sports Talk Radio. One of the local geniuses, we’ll call him Michael Bills to preserve anonymity, has been openly confused why fans are upset with Murphy. Murphy sets the tone for the organization and he is clearly not in tune with the community nor with the Packers’ traditions (more on that below). “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence” said Coach Lombardi. The Packers are now 7-3 overall, but before we get too giddy:
Are you happy with that? Are you confident that this 2020 Packers Team has Championship Potential? Coach doesn’t see it so far. Yes, we “almost beat” the Colts in Overtime. But we were also only a few plays away from being blown out 41-21 in regulation. Coach will make the case here that we were really lucky that the game was as close as it was: OK, enough of the rant, last week Coach said about this game: Rivers vs. Poutine - We have only one game for reference between Rivers and Poutine’s Defense, and it’s not good… …the Colts run a really balanced Run/Pass Offense. …the Colts also have outstanding Special Teams. Last week they blocked a punt in a win against the Titans. Sure enough, balanced Offense, great Defense and great Special Teams were enough to eke out a 34-31 OT win against the Pack. Obviously the MVS fumble in Overtime led directly to the Colts win, but most of the team were quick to defend him. While Coach agrees that MVS is not the sole reason we lost, he did fumble the ball. In the parlance of most HS Coaches, he was carrying it like a “loaf of bread”. Look carefully and you’ll see that he has his hand wrapped around the middle of the ball. The point of the ball should be in his palm his arm should be “high and tight”. If he would have carried it that way, it would not come out. The Colts rookie safety who caused the fumble even mentioned that he noticed in film study that MVS carried the ball loosely, so he just “punched at it”. So then why did we lose? Well Jimmy, you tell Coach, which is better? Should you play, rock, paper or scissors? Who was more to blame? Defense, Offense or Special Teams? Or was it Coaching, Scheme or Players? Rocks, Paper, Scissors? Well Billy, the answer is yes. Defense-Offense-&-Special-Teams and Coaching-Scheme-&-Players were all to blame. This was a complete Team loss. Every phase of the team played complementary losing football. Special Teams were awful all game long. Darrius Shepherd had a horrible game returning kicks in general. The Colts used short, “pop-up” kickoffs and only one of the 7 kickoffs were returned past the 25. So give the advantage to Colts’ ST over the Pack. And! In addition to the scheme, we also have an issue with Shepherd. He’s was a terrible kick returner then and was relegated to the Practice Squad. Looks like that’s where he should be now. Take a look at his arms, he’s got the ball positioned better than MVS, but when he starts to get tackled, he loosens his grip and moves his left-arm, the “protection-arm”, away from the ball and it is punched out. So in addition to being at a schematic disadvantage on Kick-Offs, the Packers were at a disadvantage in “Players”. Both MVS’ and Shepherd’s fumbles were similar, so score one for “bad-coaching” as well. We obviously don’t coach ball security well enough. Three plays later the Colts scored a TD which was called back due to holding. After the penalty they eventually scored a FG, so instead of 7-points they had to settle for 3. This is where Coach got 4 points of his 41-21 score (instead of 31-31 in Regulation Time). Not to be outdone, Aaron Rodgers had two turnovers. The first was a fumbled Center-QB exchange. Several TV replays revealed nothing that Packer-Fan-Favorite-Aikman could point out, but Coach notes that Center Corey Linsley went out shortly after the fumble --- perhaps a contributing factor? Who knows, this one goes down as bad karma. Rodgers interception has several problems with it. The first problem is that we were in 1st & 20 instead of 2nd & 6, because Bakhtiari was called for holding on 1st down. Issue #1 --- on the player. The second issue is Rodgers was off balance when he threw the ball, after the game he said he slipped. In the clip you can see that he falls a bit to his left instead of being balanced and stepping through the throw --- so that’s on the player --- Rodgers. The third issue is that the Colts CB baits AR into throwing the pick. He lays off showing Rodgers a big hole in the Cover-2 Zone, then he quickly recovers and shuts down the hole. Credit Colts Defensive Coaching, ding to Packers Offensive Coaching for not highlighting this. The Colts took over on the Packers 35 and three plays later doinked a FG attempt off the cross-bar. Lucky break Packers and another “lucky” 3 points off the Regulation score (which makes it “plus 7” for the Colt so-far). So MVS was not the only goat in the game, how do you summarize this game? Let Coach be very candid here, this was a particularly vexing game to summarize in a few words, but after studying game much more closely:
Of course that’s over simplified view of the game, so let’s dig a little bit deeper. In the 1st-half we average 8.1 yards/play on Offense. In the 2nd-Half we averaged 4.0 yards/play due to poor offensive execution by us and good defensive execution by the Colts. Hidden in the standard measure of yardage are the “Hidden Yards”. Coach has talked about this before, but Hidden Yardage is basically a measure of starting field position and the advantage to being closer to the goal line. The shorter the field, the easier it is to score. The Colts had a 56-yard advantage in the 1st-half and an 80-yard advantage in the 2nd-half. This is already going on too long and we could literally find issues with 90% of the Packers plays. Instead of covering every play, Coach is going to give you a few examples of what we did to sabotage ourselves in each phase of the game. Offense Jamaal Williams and Aaron Jones had 15 carries for 53 yards (3.5 yds/carry). We started the year as one of the top rushing teams and now we are down in the middle of that pack. Clearly that’s a Coaching issue (play calling). One of the things good teams do is to continue to run. The play above is on the drive that ended up being stalled on downs in the 4th Quarter. No holding call and perhaps we end up with a TD instead of zippo-nada. The 3.5 yards/carry average is not great, but as Jamaal’s run shows, we need to run the ball more. Human nature is a bite and when we get in trouble we fall back on bad habits. Aaron Rodgers is no exception. The two clips below are of the same play. Situation: after all the mistakes and heartaches we’ve discussed, the Packers had the ball on the 8-yard line, 3rd & 3, with 14 seconds to go. Never mind that we should have had about 15 seconds more time because AR wasted time earlier in the 4th trying to get them to jump on a hard-count. Bad habit #1 – throwing off of the back foot. Rodgers has moderate pressure, but rather than step through the throw he backs off and throws a flat and inaccurate pass that is uncatchable. Bad habit #2 – focus on Davante only. It’s clear from the moment the ball is snapped that Rodgers is only looking at Adams. The Colts blanket Adams and he is not open, there really is no window for Rodgers. Another option available to Rodgers on that pays was Bobby Tonyan. The play call (Coaching & Scheme) isn’t bad, it’s the “First-Ballot-Hall-of-Famer” who F’s-up the play. You have to look at more than one guy to see who else is open. Not to be outdone, LaFleur proves that he can imitate Melissa McCarthy with crappy play calling. Situation: The Packers had the ball, 1st & 10 at the Indy 43 with 5:14 on the clock in the 4th, down 31-28. On 1st down they had a holding call. Three downs and 19 yards later they had 4th & 1 at the Indy 34. Coaching Decision #1 – Kick a FG or go for it? Coach thinks LaFleur was correct to go for it, our D had played so poorly there was no guarantee we could hold onto a 31-31 tie (assuming we made the 52-yd FG). But kicking a FG to tie was a valid option for debate. Coaching Decision #2 – what play to run? In an obvious running situation we brought in Jamaal Williams and three tight ends. But no one lined up in the backfield to block. The Colts said afterward they expected a throw to Davante Adams…so obviously LaFleur is showing his tendencies. There are over 5 minutes on the clock, the need is to get a first down, run down the clock and score at least a FG. Why are we going for a “kill shot” against a Top-5 D? Why is there no FB for a power run? Alternatively, why not a QB sneak? You tell me, I don’t get it… Special Teams We covered Hidden Yards above. Literally every punt-kicked, kickoff-kicked and punt-returned ended up in negative field position for us. Situation: End of 3rd Quarter, Packers up 28-25, but momentum in Colts favor, Packers 4th & 1 on the GB 31. Then we had a false-start … on a frickin’ punt no less!!! (Coaching and Player error) In yet another late-Season meltdown, JK Scott averaged a net of 36 yards on three punts. This punt was his best, net 38 yards and gave the ball to the Colts on the Indy 36. Luckily the Defense had one of its better series of the game and held the Colts to a FG, tying the game at 28. Defense For the Defense we are only going to look at the last drive of the Colts in Regulation Time. (Coach is actually skipping the ridiculous Preston Smith non-coverage of Colts TE Trey Burton on a TD pass and several other idiotic plays. After all of the nonsense of the 3rd & 4th Quarters we still had a chance to win the game.) Situation: After the Pack gave up the ball on downs, the Colts had the ball at their own 34-yard line with 3:06 on the clock and a 31-28 lead. The Pack had 3 TO’s, so the Colts objective is to chew up time and run out the clock. On 1st down we gave up a 14-yard pass play across the middle (another trend with the Poutine Defensive Scheme). It’s a critical situation and the D has to be really in-tune, correct? Well two plays and two penalties and we gave the Colts another 1st down. One penalty for Offsides and one for 12-men-on-the-field and the Colts had the ball on the GB 42 with 2:12 left in the game. (And you thought Rodgers was the only one who can catch guys on the field.) Sometimes lucky is better than good. On 1st-down the Colts run it right up the middle…thank goodness there was a holding call or this might have been game-over right there. A couple of things to point out…First we are in a base defense formation, with lighter Nickel personnel. Why? We know they are running and having the extra DB has shown no evidence of stopping passes over the middle, so why do we not have to ILB’s on the field. Second --- Dean Frickin’ Lowry stands up in the middle and gets pushed 5 yards downfield. Just about every week he shows up in the “stand-up-in-my-cubicle-and-look-around-position”. (Remember kids? Low man wins.) Wow, the holding call saved Lowry’s ass, pushing the Colts back to 1st & 20. A ray of hope on Defense --- Kamaal Martin diagnoses the run and makes an outstanding TFL. There was a holding penalty called, which was declined, but the Zebras made a mistake and didn’t give the Martin the -1 yd TFL. (LaFleur should have challenged the spot, what should have been 2nd & 21 became 2nd & 20 when they put the ball back at the original LOS.) ON 2nd down the Colts picked up a yard, leading to 3rd & 19 with 2:04 on the clock. Obviously we should be playing our Base D which has worked fairly well so far, right? Last but not least, the Poutine signature “Prevent D”. Coach was yelling so loud the TV wobbled and the dog was scared. WTF? The still shot above gives you a sense of what it looked like before the snap. There are 2 DL & 2 OLB on the LOS and nobody else for another 11 yards. WTF? With nobody to the outside, Rivers throws a quick WR screen … and guess what … there is nobody home to defend it and they pick up 13 yards. The Colts went for it on 4th down and got a 1st Down. In the end, the only thing that stopped this drive was penalties … the Colts had 6 penalties (4 enforced) on this last drive, forcing them to punt. Without the penalties the Colts would have easily run out the clock and probably scored at least a FG. Time to change the Defensive coaching staff. WTF – Coach’s take on football news that’s messed up Buccaneers Unnerved By Jason Pierre-Paul Celebrating Touchdowns By Lighting Fireworks On Sideline ST. PETERSBURG, FL—Holding their breath as he threw firecracker after firecracker at the Gatorade jug, members of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were reportedly unnerved Monday night with Jason Pierre-Paul celebrating touchdowns against the Rams by lighting fireworks on the sideline. “I heard this loud ‘pop, pop, pop,’ and whipped around to see Jason lighting another one. Where does he even get them from?” said linebacker Devin White, who claimed that, in last week’s game, Pierre-Paul had spent the entire third quarter setting up a display for the end-of-the-game celebration. “Christ, he’s got one called the ‘Powder Keg’ that’s bigger than my bicep. Should we call security? Because I thought he was gonna lose an eye shooting off all the bottle rockets at halftime. Oh geez, there goes his foot!” At press time viewers at home were dazzled as Pierre-Paul’s exploding arm spelled out ‘Go Bucs’ in blood. ADVERTISEMENT The Bears Still Suck – Coach has proof Nick Foles, Bears Come To Terms On Contract Reduction CHICAGO—Finally completing a long-sought move to ensure a winning future for the organization, the Chicago Bears and quarterback Nick Foles announced Tuesday that they had come to terms on a contract reduction. “We believe this is a win-win for both sides, and are thrilled to get out ahead of future contract disputes and cut down on Nick’s time here,” said Bears general manager Ryan Pace, who noted that after everything Foles had shown the franchise over the past few months, the quarterback had earned the right to be cut loose. “We want our fans to think we are always willing to do what it takes to win. It’s been a priority to lock Nick into leaving, and this was a better deal than anyone was ever going to offer him. We know he’s excited about being the face of the another team’s bench for years to come.” Pace also added that the new contract included generous guaranteed money provisions for every game Foles simply does not attend. Udder Stuff – Commentary from the Badger Underground A bump in the road to Indy… God what a mess on the ladder of success. Sometimes you take one step and miss the whole first rung. You knew it could be another debacle in Evanston when Sconnie showed up minus their two top receivers. NU’s first drive included an obvious non-catch being confirmed as a catch by video review, a phantom PI penalty on Wildgoose and a NU receiver flopping in the end zone for another phantom PI. In a Badgers drive that followed, Groschek’s knee was down and he was facemasked before fumbling. The fumble was not reviewed, NU ball. Despite racking up dominating numbers in the stat sheet during the first half, turnovers, phantom penalties and lack of a passing threat yielded a 14-7 deficit. Northwestern’s harassing defense did what you do to one-dimensional offenses and tee’d off on heating up Mertz and the rushing game. With the Goophs game canceled, what else is going on around the league… All hands on deck when Indiana rolls into Camp Randall next weekend! We’re Gonna Kick Your @$$ – predictions for the upcoming game Rant #2 … …what the hell is Petite Fleur talking about? Bears week isn’t important? In Lovie Smith’s opening press conference, when he was introduced as the Bears’ new head coach, he said he had one goal: “Beat the Packers.” In Lindy Infante’s opening press conference he said that he was excited to come to Green Bay, but his dog? Not so much (if this is too obscure, look it up). This has nothing to do with the Bears, but Infante new the traditions and history of the Pack. When Lambeau Field was rebuilt and reconfigured, the Packers’ locker room was moved to the SE Corner of Lambeau and a new player entrance tunnel had to be created (right through the seat where Coach used to sit watching all the games of Favre 90’s). Bob Harlan saved pieces of the old tunnel where Starr, Lombardi and company made their way to the field and had them installed in the new tunnel. Tradition. History. Important. The Packers-Bears rivalry is the oldest in the NFL. Hating the Bears is part of the Packers tradition that goes back to the days of the Packers Lumber Jack Band parading through the streets and Johnny Blood sneaking out of his Chicago hotel room the night before the game. Hell, even George Halas helped the Packers with one of the stock sales in the 30’s because he knew that having a neighbor to fight was important for Chicago. LaFleur doesn’t get it, hating the Bears is part of our tradition, part of our DNA. The Packers are the Fans’ team, not LaFleur’s and despising the Bears is part of our culture. We’ve played more games against each other than any two franchises and Sunday Night will be the 201st meeting. The Packers lead the series 99-95-6 and with a Packers win the Bears will join the Lions as franchises that the Packers have beaten 100 times. The All-Time score is mind-bogglingly close, with the Packers winning by an average score of 17.3 to 17.1 Looking at 2020, the Packers have a much stronger Offense than the Bears. We’re averaging 31 pts/gm and ranked 3rd, while the Bears are averaging 19 pts/gm and ranked 31st. On the other hand, the Bears are allowing 21 pts/gm and are ranked 6th, just behind Indy, and well ahead of us at 26 pts/gm (rank 17th). The Bears will be the fourth Top 10 Defense we face this year (Tampa Bay and New Orleans were the others). Our net scoring margin is 6.8 pts/gm better than the Bears. Home Field advantage? Hard to say if there is one this year, but the Pack will have a few hundred friends and family in attendance, so let’s give’em a couple points. And? Well that gets you to 8 or 9 points, pretty much the same as the Vegas line of 7.5. Hard to believe, but this will be Aaron Rodgers 26th game against the Bears. His record is 20-5-0 against the Bears and he’s averaged a 25-16 winning score over that time. So how did it start for Rodgers and the Bears? If we jump in the way-back-machine we see that 2008 was a little bit like 2020 and we also had two “late” Bears games, the first being at Lambeau on Nov. 16th, 2008. Rodgers faced Bears QB’s Kyle Ortman and Rex Grossman in his “Bears-Week” debut and he led the Pack to a 37-3 blowout win on. Can we do it again? Well we certainly have! One of the most entertaining games was six years later and also a Sunday night game, on Nov. 9th, 2014. The Pack was 5-3 going into the game and the fans were nervous facing the 3-5 Bears. Not to worry, Rodgers led the Pack to another blowout. The two teams were going in very different directions and it showed on the field. The game opened with a TD by Brandon Bostick, his only TD of the year and the second and final of his career. The 2014 Packers went on to a 12-4 record and eventually lost in the NFC Championship Game, 22-28 (OT) to the SeaChickens. Yes, that Bostick. You remember this guy, he’s the one that botched the onside kick; he was supposed to block and instead tipped the ball away from Jordy, which led to Seattle winning the game. Ok back to the Bears in 2014. Jordy was in his prime and had 6 catches for 152 yards and 2 TD’s. The Bears’s QB, “Same old Jay”, played to form as well, going 22-37 for 272 yards, 1 TD and 2 INT’s and a passer rating of 68.7. (Oh, BTW, AR went 18-27 for 315, 6 TD’s and a passer rating of 145.8). There are so many blowouts in the history of this series that it’s hard to narrow it down to favorites, so let’s just savor last year’s 21-13 Packers win at Lambeau. It’s probably just a coincidence that Coach is including this clip of Jake Kumerow against the Bears last year. Rodgers stated before the 2020 final cutdown that Kumerow was one of his favorite targets. Generally Coach gives Gootey good grades, but he missed on this one. Goodbye Packers, hello Buffalo Bills (where he is now). Kumerow produced as a ST guy and a very solid 4th or 5th receiver. Can anyone honestly say we wouldn’t want him over Equanimeous S. Brown, Malik Taylor, Darrius Shepherd or Reggie Begelton? (Who all Grade D or F.) “Whitewater Jesus” has an interesting pedigree. He’s the son of former Miami Dolphins linebacker Eric Kumerow and the nephew of former Dolphins defensive end John Bosa (and therefore a cousin to John's sons, Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa and Niners defensive end Nick Bosa.) He is also the great-grandson of Chicago mob boss Tony Accardo. During Prohibition, Accardo got the nickname "Joe Batters" after using a baseball bat to murder three mobsters who had betrayed the Outfit. Capone was allegedly quoted as saying, "Boy, this kid's a real Joe Batters". Chicago newspapers eventually dubbed Accardo "The Big Tuna". Of course the more modern “Big Tuna” said you are what your record says you are, so we are 7-3. The Bears, on the other hand, started 5-1 and are now 5-5. So, obviously they suck, at least according to logic of the Big Tuna and the Chicago Mob. About the only question for Sunday night is, “who’s going to play QB for the Bears?” Who the hell knows? Who the hell cares? The options are: Mitch Turdbisquit Nick Foles Tyler Bray Really, Coach is not kidding. As of this writing, it looks like Turdbisquit, aka “Jay-Junior”, will get the start. Look for him to run a lot, and when he does throw, look for him to throw a couple of picks. No reason to think things are going to change, the Packers have averaged 23 pts/game in their two Windy-Lambeau games and Sunday should be no different. Take the Pack to win, but it’s gonna be a hard-fought-Division-Game, so bet the Under (45.5). Packers 24 Bears 17 Chevon McNuggets - G.O.A.T. facts to chew on JB – Packers you forgot about, but stories you’ll remember about them So left tackle David Bakhtiari is now the highest paid offensive lineman in the history of the NFL. Congratulations. They say you deserve it, so – good for you. Probably the best left tackle the Packers have ever had, though, is a guy you might not even think or have heard of. The Packers of the 1960s featured one of the greatest offensive lines of all time. The team’s four highest all-time rushing totals were achieved from 1961 through 1964, and Green Bay led the league in rushing in three of those years, despite going head-to-head with Jim Brown‘s Cleveland Browns. It was a disciplined group noted for their speed, strength, technique, and hustle. Check out this film sequence of a quick-toss play to Jim Taylor against the Lions in 1964… With a “bad knee gallop” Bob Skoronski accompanies Taylor all the way down the field, making the final block on the play 80 yards from the line of scrimmage! Remarkably (but maybe not surprisingly), nobody congratulates the unsung hero of that score, Skoronski, but they all congratulate Taylor as he trots back to the sidelines. Like a quiet, proud Wisconsin farmer, Skoronski just did his job and didn’t make a big deal about it. Four of the starters on that Packers O-line were continually celebrated for their excellence … left tackle Bob Skoronski was never named to an All Pro team and made the Pro Bowl only once, in his tenth and penultimate (look it up) season. When reflecting on not being a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton years later, he would wonder, “Was my guy the only guy who got to the quarterback? Did we always run to the right side?” Skoronski started on the 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966 and 1967 NFL Championship teams (as well as Super Bowls I and II). In film reviews, coaches graded him as the No. 1 or 2 lineman in nearly every season. Bart Starr often praised his blind-side protector, and pushed for Skoronski’s nomination to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Bob was never concerned about the lack of recognition; for him it was enough to know teammates relied on him and opponents respected him. Most important to him, Lombardi named him captain of the offense in 1964 and he retained that role until his retirement in 1968 — something Skoronski called “the greatest honor I’ve ever had.” Bob may ultimately be best remembered by football aficionados though for his apt summation of the Ice Bowl: ‘It was our mark of distinction.’ Ironically, even in that game, Bob delivered a key block that was overshadowed. On a sucker play at the Cowboy 11, he thoroughly sealed off defensive end George Andrie while defensive tackle Bob Lilly followed pulling-guard Gale Gillingham, allowing Chuck Mercein to rumble through a huge hole down to the three. If Mercein could have kept his feet, he might have scored and perhaps brought Skoronski some of the recognition that would fall to Jerry Kramer for his double-team block on Jethro Pugh four plays later.
Like many players back then, football was only a part-time vocation for Skoronski; Bob put his business degree to work every off-season. He worked for Marathon Paper and then managed a class-ring sales territory for Jostens. He helped design and sell the Packers’ first 2 Super Bowl rings. That’s right, the Super Bowl ring, the most sought after symbol of an NFL champion, was Bob Skoronski’s doing! A resident of Wisconsin since he was drafted in 1956, in 1990 he retired from his various business ventures in full-time pursuit of his lifelong passion for hunting and fishing. "I was very lucky to be where I was and a member of those teams in Green Bay," Skoronski said. "I played with a great group of teammates for a great coach. There was a helluva lot of love there and that's what made it special. It wasn't all about the money you took home. I'll treasure the experience for the rest of my life." Bob Skoronski was enshrined into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, poetically, in ‘76. He lived into his advanced years in Madison, and passed away 2 years ago. En so today we posthumously salute you, Bob Skoronski, as the overlooked anchor on the offensive line during the Packers glory years, which will never be forgotten – and neither should you.
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Author"Coach" is the insightful collective brain and funny bone of a few legendary Packer fans who provide everything you need to know (and what Packers beat writers often plagiarize) about the Green & Gold, plus a weekly guest appearance by The Badger Underground. Archives
November 2022
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