Karl Swanke was born a Packer fan in Elmhurst, Illinois, on December 29, 1957, and remained one even after his family moved to Connecticut when he was young. The 6’6” 220-pound Swanke played football at Newington High School and won state titles in throwing the javelin and the discus. Winning a scholarship to Boston College, Karl bulked up to 250 pounds and was a three-year starter at center, while earning a degree in Physics.
Bart Starr, whose autograph Swanke had collected as a boy, selected Karl in the sixth round of the 1980 draft. Swanke appeared in all 16 games as a rookie. In 1981, he scored his only touchdown by catching a two-yard pass from Lynn Dickey against the Falcons in week two. Two weeks later, he tore up his knee in a clash with the Vikings. Karl then won the starting left tackle slot in 1982, although recurring knee problems caused him to miss the Packers playoff run in that strike-shortened season.
Swanke remained the Packers’ starting left tackle through the 1985 season, although he also played a little on the right side once Ken Ruettgers joined the team. His biggest moment of fame came in the second game of the season in 1985 when broadcaster John Madden admiringly highlighted a play in which Karl smacked Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor in the face and then kicked him in the stomach.
In 1986, Forrest Gregg switched Swanke to center, and he started half the season there before knee problems ended his season. His teammates voted him the team’s Ed Block Courage Award that year, which would prove to be his last. Karl reported to training camp in 1987, but then retired in August due to his ongoing knee problems.
Since retiring from football, Swanke has led a successful career in business, both with IBM and as a private consultant. He has also testified as to living the life of a devout Christian.
In Matt LaFleur’s second year, the Packers took a small step forward with a second straight 13-3 season, in that they won the top seed in the NFC and got to host the Conference Championship game, but they fell short of the Super Bowl with a frustrating performance in that contest. Here are my notes after that loss to Tom Brady’s Bucs:
Kevin King’s brain cramp at the end of the half was the first blow.
Giving up a quick score off a fumble to start the third quarter was awful.
Rodgers being overly focused on Adams in the red zone was deadly.
Two three and outs after picks by the defense were devastating.
Can’t say I’m surprised. One of my main storylines for the season was will Brady take the Bucs to the SB. He signed with a team that was all set up for him with receivers, runners, a decent line and a good defense. He took care of the leadership part even on a day when he threw three picks.
I would have made the conventional choice and gone for it on fourth down, but that choice was not the biggest thing to me. Either way the defense would have to stop Brady with the game on the line.
Tampa won the battle of the trenches on both sides throughout the game. The loss of Bakhtiari didn’t help.
Packers had terrible return and coverage game all year. That also showed up in this loss.
For the season, the Packers were scored 509 points (first) and allowed 369 (13th). They were 9-1 against losers, 2-2 against winners and 2-0 against .500 teams. They were 7-1 at home and 6-2 on the road.
Rodgers started all 16 games, completed 70.7% of his passes for 4,299 yards, 48 touchdowns and five interceptions. He averaged 8.2 yards per pass and recorded a 121.5 passer rating en route to his third league MVP trophy.
Aaron Jones was the leading rusher with 1,104 yards gained. He averaged 5.5 yards per carry and scored nine touchdowns on the ground. He also caught 47 passes for two more scores. Jamaal Williams was effective relief with 505 yards rushing and 31 receptions.
Davante Adams had a monster season, catching 115 balls for 1,374 yards and 18 touchdowns. Robert Tonyan emerged at tight end with 52 catches and 11 scores. Allen Lazard and Marquez Valdes-Scantling each chipped in 33 grabs, and MVS averaged over 20 yards per reception. Adams led the team with 108 points, besting Mason Crosby by one point.
Darnell Savage led in interceptions with four of the team’s paltry 11 picks. Za’Darius Smith recorded 12.5 sacks and was followed by Rashan Gary’s five and Preston Smith’s four.
Rodgers, Adams, David Bakhtiari, Corey Linsley, Jaire Alexander, Adrian Amos and Za’Darius Smith (second team) all were named All-Pro. Rodgers, Adams, Jones, Bakhtiari, Z. Smith, Alexander and Elgton Jenkins all were selected for the Pro Bowl. Jordan Love was the team’s top draft pick, but second rounder AJ Dillon had more impact as a rookie. Speaking of Dillons, Bobby Dillon was elected to the Hall of Fame posthumously.
Custom cards for Packers 100th NFL season in 1960 Topps Baseball style.
For the third decade in a row, the Packers had only two losing seasons. Those six losing seasons in the last three decades are fewer than they had in in either the 1950s or 1970s (8), their two worst decades. In fact, only the Patriots won more games in the 2010s, and the Patriots were the only team to win more than one Super Bowl in the period as well. Green Bay was a disappointing 1-3 in NFC championship games and won their one Super Bowl in the first year of the decade.
On offense, the Packers twice led the league in points and were in the top ten six times. Their worst finish was 21st in 2017. The other side of the ball was the team’s downfall. They were second in points allowed in 2010 and ninth in 2019. In between, their rank dropped into the 20s four times.
TEAM
WINS
LOSSES
TIES
WIN%
New England Patriots (3)
125
35
0
78.1%
Green Bay Packers (1)
102
56
2
64.4%
Pittsburgh Steelers
102
57
1
64.1%
Seattle Seahawks (1)
100
59
1
62.8%
New Orleans Saints
100
60
0
62.5%
Baltimore Ravens (1)
98
62
0
61.2%
Kansas City Chiefs (1)
96
64
0
60.0%
Denver Broncos (1)
89
71
0
55.6%
Atlanta Falcons
89
71
0
55.6%
Philadelphia Eagles (1)
87
73
0
54.4%
Dallas Cowboys
86
74
0
53.8%
Indianapolis Colts
82
78
0
51.2%
Houston Texans
82
78
0
51.2%
Minnesota Vikings
81
77
2
51.2%
San Francisco 49ers
80
79
1
50.3%
Carolina Panthers
78
81
1
49.1%
Los Angeles Chargers
77
83
0
48.1%
Cincinnati Bengals
77
81
2
48.8%
Chicago Bears
76
84
0
47.5%
Arizona Cardinals
75
83
2
47.5%
Los Angeles Rams
73
86
1
45.9%
Detroit Lions
72
87
1
45.3%
Buffalo Bills
71
89
0
44.4%
New York Giants (1)
70
90
0
43.8%
Miami Dolphins
70
90
0
43.8%
Tennessee Titans
69
91
0
43.1%
New York Jets
68
92
0
42.5%
Oakland Raiders
63
97
0
39.4%
Washington Redskins
62
97
1
39.1%
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
59
101
0
36.9%
Jacksonville Jaguars
51
109
0
31.9%
Aaron Rodgers was 96-45-1 as a starter. He completed 64.7% of his passes for 38,145 yards, 305 touchdowns and just 63 interceptions. He averaged 7.7 yards per pass and earned two of his three league MVP awards. Four other quarterbacks started games for Green Bay. Matt Flynn was 3-3, completed 61.6% of his passes for 2,162 yards, 16 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Brett Hundley was 3-6, completed 59.5% of his passes for 1,853 yards, nine TDs and 13 picks. Scott Tolzien was 0-1-1, completed 61.5% of his passes for 721 yards, one score and five interceptions. In one loss, Seneca Wallace completed 66.7% of his passes for 139 yards and an interception.
On the ground, Eddie Lacy, the 2013 Rookie of the Year, ran for 3,435 yards and 23 scores. Aaron Rodgers was second with 2,552 yards and 20 touchdowns. John Starks gained 2,506 yards and scored nine times. Aaron Jones gained 2,260 yards and scored 28 times by rushing.
Jordy Nelson led all pass receivers with 495 catches for 7,162 yards and 65 TDs. Randall Cobb had 470 grabs for 5,524 yards and 41 touchdowns. Davante Adams caught 431 passes for 5,194 yards and 44 scores. James Jones added 261 catches for 3,805 yards and 37 TDs.
Mason Crosby scored 1,178 points with his foot. Nelson, Cobb and Adams scored 392, 274 and 272 points on touchdowns and two-point conversions. Cobb scored twice on punt returns and once on a kickoff return. Micah Hyde returned three punts for scores.
On defense, Tramon Williams nabbed 20 interceptions and scored on one. Sam Shields intercepted 18 passes, while Charles Woodson and Damarious Randall each picked off 10 and scored twice. Clay Matthews recorded 73.5 sacks. The next three pass rushers for the decade were Nick Perry 32, Mike Daniels 29 and Julius Peppers 25.
David Bakhtiari was named All-Pro four times, Rodgers, Matthews and Josh Sitton three times, Woodson and John Kuhn twice, while Nelson, Lacy, Nick Collins, Scott Wells and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix were named once a piece. Rodgers was picked for seven Pro Bowls, Matthews for five, Adams, Sitton and Kuhn for three, Bakhtiari, Woodson and Greg Jennings for two. Williams, Wells, Sitton, Lacy, Cobb, Nelson, Shields, Peppers, Clinton-Dix, Daniels, Collins, Donald Driver, AJ Hawk, BJ Raji, Jeff Saturday, TJ Lang, Kenny Clark and Za’Darius Smith all were selected once.
Rodgers was league MVP in 2011 and 2014. Matthews was Defensive MVP in 2010. Nelson was comeback Player of the Year in 2016.
On December 19, 1996, three members of the Packers celebrated their birthdays, three days before the season finale in Minnesota. Defensive tackle Santana Dotson turned 27 in his first season in Green Bay. Reggie White turned 35 in the 12th season of his pursuit of a Super Bowl championship. White’s counterpart at defensive end, Sean Jones, was just a year younger than White at 34, but had been chasing the Lombardi Trophy for 13 NFL seasons, 11 of which his teams reached the postseason. The Packers, of course, beat the Vikings in that finale and then swept through the playoffs and won the Super Bowl, satisfying a career-long quest for the bookend defensive wingmen.
Dwight Andre Sean O’Neil Jones was born in Kingston Jamaica in 1962. He went to high school in New Jersey and then college at Northeastern. The 6’7” 270-pound Jones was then drafted in the second round by the defending Super Bowl Champion Raiders in 1984. Sean spent four seasons in the Silver and Black, racking up 31.5 sacks, including 15.5 in 1986. Two years after that, Al Davis traded Jones to Houston for the ninth overall pick in the 1988 draft that he used to select defensive back Terry McDaniel who would have an 11-year career in the league.
Jones spent the next six seasons with the Oilers, accumulating 57.5 sacks and three times recording double figures in sacks. The Oilers made the playoffs all six seasons but lost three times in the wild card round and three times in the divisional round. During the latter three seasons of his Houston tenure, Jones’ seasons tortuously ended on fourth quarter comebacks led by John Elway, Frank Reich (yes, the blown 32-point lead) and Joe Montana.
In 1994, Packer GM Ron Wolf, who was with the Raiders when Jones was drafted, signed Sean as a free agent to team with White on the defensive line. In three seasons, the angular Jones recorded 24.5 more sacks to raise his career total to 113. In Green Bay he had 10.5, nine and then five sacks in those three seasons, as well as another four in the postseason. He also scored the sole touchdown of his career on a fumble recovery in the end zone against the Vikings on October 22, 1995.
Once he won his ring against the Patriots in 1997, Jones retired on top. The oddity of having three-quarters of the defensive line share a birthday was down to half. In the ensuing years, he has worked as an announcer, a player agent, a financial advisor, a sports talk personality and dabbled in real estate. As a player, he was picked for the Pro Bowl for the 1993 season and was named second team All-Pro in Green Bay in 1994 and 1995.
CEO Mark Murphy made a surprising choice for the team’s new head coach in youthful Matt LaFleur, but three years in, that selection is looking pretty good. LaFleur turned around a sinking ship so quickly that even Aaron Rodgers stopped moping by the end of the 2019 season. Brian Gutekunst helped matters by signing linebackers Za’Darius and Preston Smith as free agents and drafting Darnell Savage, Elgton Jenkins and Rashan Gary, but LaFleur brought it all together.
The Packers went 13-3, again scoring 376 points (15th) but giving up just 313 (ninth). They were 7-1 against losers, 3-2 against winners and 3-0 against .500 teams. They were 7-1 at home and 6-2 on the road. They even won a playoff game by whipping Seattle 28-23, although they had to hang on after once leading 21-3. The following week in the NFC title game in San Francisco, the wheels came off. Down 27-0 at half, the Pack ended up losing 37-20.
Aaron Rodgers started all 16 games and completed 62% of his passes for 4,002 yards, 26 touchdowns and four interceptions. He averaged seven yards per completion, and his passer rating was 95.4. Backup Tim Boyle was three of four for 15 yards.
Aaron Jones ran for 1,084 yards (4.6 per carry) and scored 16 TDs on the ground. He added 49 catches and three more scores through the air. Jamaal Williams gained 460 yards on the ground and caught 39 passes.
Davante Adams again caught more than twice as many passes than any other Packer receiver with 83 for 997 yards and five scores. He was supplemented by Jimmy Graham’s 38 receptions, Allen Lazard’s 35, Geronimo Allison’s 34 and Marquez Valdes-Scantling’s 26. Jones led the team with 114 points, and Mason Crosby added 106.
On defense, Kevin King nabbed five interceptions (from the team’s improved total of 17). Za’Darius Smith recorded 13.5 sacks and ‘brother” Preston had 12. Kenny Clark chipped in with six up the middle.
Z. Smith and David Bakhtiari were named All-Pro, and punter JK Scott was named to the second team. Rodgers, Adams, Bakhtiari, Clark and Z. Smith all were picked for the Pro Bowl.
Mike McCarthy’s swan song was a disaster in which the 12-year coach did not even make it through the season. Offensive Coordinator Joe Philbin stepped in as interim coach for the last month. Green Bay began the season 3-2-1 at the bye. After the bye, though, the team went 1-5, so Philbin was promoted to finish the season with a 2-2 mark. Altogether that adds up to a disappointing 6-9-1. They scored 376 points (14th) and allowed 400 (22nd). The Packers were 5-4 against losing teams and just 1-5-1 against winners. They were 5-2-1 at home and 1-7 on the road. McCarthy had brought in Mike Pettine as Defensive Coordinator, but that did not help, and new GM Brian Gutekunst pulled the plug on the McCarthy era.
A pouting Aaron Rodgers started all 16 games. He completed 62.3% of his passes for 4,442 yards, 25 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He averaged 7.4 yards per pass and recorded a 97.6 passer rating. Backup Deshone Kizer completed 47% of his passes for 187 yards and two interceptions.
Aaron Jones averaged 5.5 yards per carry and gained 728 yards on the ground, while catching 26 passes. Jamaal Williams added 464 yards rushing and 27 catches. Davonte Adams caught 111 passes for 1,386 yards and 13 scores. No other Packer had even half as many catches nor had more than two aerial touchdowns. Jimmy Graham caught 55 passes. Randall Cobb and rookie Marquez Valdes-Scantling each caught 38. Mason Crosby led in points with 124.
On defense, Ha Ha Clinton Dix picked off three passes of the team’s anemic total of seven. Kyler Fackrell recorded 11.5 sacks. He was followed by Kenny Clark’s six and the fading Clay Matthews’ 3.5. David Bakhtiari was named All-Pro; Rodgers and Adams were selected to the Pro Bowl.
Gutekunst’s first drafted yielded a diamond with top pick Jaire Alexander, but the rest of the picks were underwhelming. He got better value from undrafted rookies Allen Lazard, Tyler Lancaster and Robert Tonyan.
Jerry Kramer finally was elected to the Hall of Fame.
Born on December 8, 1929, in Paris, Texas, Bobby Jack Floyd starred at Paris High School a few years before future Hall of Famer Raymond Berry did. Floyd then went to Paris Junior College before transferring to TCU, where he was twice All Southwest Conference. He was a rugged 6’ 210-pound fullback.
Drafted by the Packers in the 15th round in 1952, Bobby Jack appeared in all 12 games as a rookie, starting five. He gained 236 yards on the ground, averaging 3.9 yards per carry and caught 11 passes. He scored his one NFL touchdown on October 12 on a first quarter 14-yard run against the Rams in Milwaukee. The Packers led 28-6 going into the fourth quarter that day before Bob Waterfield got hot and led the Rams back to a 30-28 triumph.
Unfortunately, the following August, Floyd was operated on for bone spurs in his heel and was subsequently waived in September. With the injury and the acquisition of Howie Ferguson to join Fred Cone at fullback in Green Bay, Floyd was expendable. The Bears signed Bobby Jack in October, in a rare example of the Bears picking up a ‘50s Packers’ discard; usually it was the Packers grabbing up former Bears in that decade. Floyd appeared in eight games for Chicago, gained 70 yards on the ground and caught nine passes. That ended his NFL career.
He got married in 1957 and worked at Texas Instruments in Dallas. Eventually, the family moved to Garland and then Sherman, Texas. The Floyds spent a decade in retirement in California and then returned to Paris, Texas in 2012 where Bobby Jack died on June 27 that year at age 82. He was survived by his wife of 55 years, two sons, one daughter and seven grandchildren.
“Champ” is not a nickname. The 6’4” 240-pound tackle was born Champ Clark Seibold on December 5, 1911, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Champ starred in football, basketball and track at Oshkosh High School and later attended both Ripon College and the University of Wisconsin. At Madison, he played on the freshman team in 1933, and varsity coach Doc Spears was singing his praises in anticipation of Seibold joining the varsity in ’34. However, two problems arose. First, he was academically ineligible, and second, he was declared ineligible by the Big Ten due to a financial issue.
When Champ was at Ripon the year before, he incurred a debt of $92 to that institution. A Wisconsin official arranged for a loan so that Seibold could pay off Ripon and enroll at UW. In March 1934, Big Ten commissioner Griffith ruled that Seibold was tainted due to those financial arrangements and not eligible for athletics. Within a week, Champ signed with the Packers to play pro football.
Even then, there were problems. Seibold appeared in one game and then was removed from the roster because his original college class would not graduate till June. So Curly Lambeau optioned Champ out to the Memphis Tigers of the American Football League, where he was named All-League.
Despite suffering an eye injury when a bartender accidentally hit him with a bottle in January, Seibold’s NFL career got fully underway in 1935. For the next three years he was primarily a reserve, although he did live up to his name in 1936 when the Packers won the league title. He became a regular starter in 1938 when the Packers returned to the title game where they lost to the Giants. In 1939, though, he held out in a salary dispute with Lambeau and eventually returned to college at Oshkosh State Teachers’ College instead of settling. At OSTC, his athletic eligibility was reinstated for track, and he competed in both discus and the shot put.
Champ came to terms with Green Bay in 1940, but he was no longer a starter. A year later he was waived and returned again to Oshkosh College. The Cardinals signed Seibold in 1942, and he played one last year in the NFL and scored his only touchdown on his only career interception. He also got married that year.
Champ had opened a tavern in Oshkosh in 1937 and ran it for 20 years in his post-football life. After that he worked for the state Division of Corrections at the Kettle Moraine Boys School. He died of a heart attack at home in Oshkosh on November 2, 1971, at age 59. He was survived by his wife, son and two daughters.
2017 was a painful one to watch. Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy had failed to fix the defense again so that once Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone in week six, the season was lost. The Packers were 4-1 when Rodgers went down in the first quarter in Minnesota; when he returned eight weeks later the team was 7-6, with its playoff chances hanging by a thread. Rodgers was rusty and playing against a superior Carolina squad, so they lost, and the Packers played out the string with two more losses behind Brett Hundley.
Green Bay scored 320 points (21st) and gave up 384 (26th). They were 4-4 at home and 3-5 on the road. They were 2-9 against winning teams and 5-0 against losers–although three of those wins against bad teams came in overtime. To break it down further by quarterback starts, Rodgers was 2-3 against winners and 2-0 against losers; Brett Hundley was 3-0 against losers and 0-6 against winning teams.
In his seven starts, Rodgers completed 64.7% of his passes for 1,675 yards, 16 touchdowns and six interceptions. He averaged seven yards per throw and had a 97.2 passer rating. In proving he was not starting quarterback material, Hundley completed 60.8% of his passes for 1,836 yards, nine TDs and 12 interceptions. He averaged just 5.8 yards per pass and had an anemic 70.6 passer rating.
A rookie running back tandem paced the team in rushing. Jamaal Williams gained 556 yards, averaging 3.6 yards per carry, and caught 25 passes. Aaron Jones added 448 yards on the ground, but averaged 5.5 per carry.
Davante Adams led the team with 74 catches for 885 yards and ten scores. Randall Cobb caught 66 passes, but averaged just 9.9 yards, while Jordy Nelson sunk to 53 catches and 9.1 yards per catch. Tight end Martellus Bennet caught 24 passes at tight end through seven games and then quit the team. Somehow, he ended up winning a Super Bowl ring with New England three months later.
Mason Crosby led the team with a paltry 78, the only season in his career that he did not tally at least 100 points.
On defense, Damarious Randall had four interceptions and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix three. Clay Matthews had 7.5 sacks and Nick Perry seven.
David Bakhtiari was named All-Pro. Adams and Mike Daniels were picked for the Pro Bowl. Among rookies, Kevin King and Josh Jones came in round two, but top performers Williams and Jones came in rounds four and five respectively.
packers past perfect 