Ty Detmer

Ty Detmer was Texas Player of the Year for his senior year of high school in San Antonio where his father Sonny was his coach but was so frail looking that there was no major push to recruit him. Brigham Young Coach La Vell Edwards often told the story that when Detmer visited Provo that Edwards expected to see John Elway when “in walks Pee Wee Herman.” At BYU, though, Ty racked up an NCAA record 15,031 yards passing with 121 TD passes in three-and-a-half years. He threw at least one touchdown pass in 35 consecutive games at BYU and won the Heisman Trophy as a junior and the Davey O’Brien Award for the nation’s top college quarterback as both a junior and senior.

What NFL scouts saw was a small, fragile player listed at six-foot and 190-pounds who was suspect as both a Heisman winner and a BYU quarterback. Detmer was not drafted until the ninth round by Green Bay. In four years backing up Brett Favre in Green Bay, Ty got into only eight games, but the Eagles signed him in 1996 as someone who was familiar with coordinator Jon Gruden’s offense. Early in the 1996 season, Eagles’ starter Rodney Peete hurt his knee, and Detmer finally got his chance. The Eagles won Ty’s first four starts, but in the second half of the year both Detmer and the Eagles were exposed a bit. The team made the playoffs but played poorly in being shut out by San Francisco in a first-round game. The next year, Detmer just barely won the starting job in training camp and was shuffled in and out of the lineup all season. 

At the end of the season, Detmer left Philadelphia to back up Steve Young in San Francisco. After just one year, it was on to the expansion Cleveland Browns where he prepped vaunted rookie Tim Couch for a year. Ty next spent three years in Detroit where he threw seven interceptions in his first start and mentored another vaunted rookie, Joey Harrington, before finishing his career as a third stringer in Atlanta. Despite being too short to see, too slight to endure and too weak armed to throw, his pro career lasted more than 10 years. Detmer was smart, competitive, mobile, could manage a game plan and was a nice touch passer. He was an fine NFL backup but was 11-14 as a starter. In retirement, Detmer followed in his father’s footsteps and became a high school coach, although he did have a two-year stint as the offensive coordinator at BYU. Ty’s younger brother Koy spent eight years as a backup quarterback in Philadelphia and has also gone into high school coaching in retirement.

(Adapted from The Quarterback Abstract)

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Javon Walker

On October 14, Javon Walker turned 44. Walker’s name turns up in the local media every year around draft time when he is recalled as the last receiver drafted in the first round by the Packers, back in 2002. In reality, it’s a bit of a cautionary tale. The 6’3” 215-pound Walker was born in Galveston, Texas, went to high school in Louisiana and played college football at Florida State. He also spent three years as an outfielder in the Florida Marlins system.

Javon was the 20^th overall pick in 2002 and made steady progress in Green Bay. As a rookie, he caught 23 passes for a 13.9 average and one TD. In 2003, he raised those totals to 41 catches for 716 yards, a 17.5 average and nine scores. In year three, he took off, catching 89 passes for 1,382 yards (15.5) and 12 touchdowns. That earned him a berth in the Pro Bowl, but his resentment of the team was growing.

Walker wanted to renegotiate his contract and was upset with his pay. When his quarterback, Brett Favre, made some unwanted comments, that just made him angrier. Eventually facing new GM Ted Thompson, Walker backed off his threats to sit out the season and reported to camp. Unfortunately, he tore his ACL in game one and was never the same receiver again.

In 2006, he signed a five-year $40-million contract with Denver and caught 69 passes for 1,084 yards and eight TDs. Immediately after the season, he was out at the clubs when his rookie teammate Darrent Williams was shot in the car Walker was in and fell over dead in Javon’s lap. Walker missed half the next season due to injuries and then was cut, having pocketed $21 million from his contract.

Al Davis then swooped in and signed Walker to a six-year $55-million contract. Just before training camp in 2008, Walker was found beaten and robbed on a street just off the Las Vegas strip. Walker appeared in 11 games for the Raiders over the next two seasons, caught 15 passes and pocketed $14 million before he was cut. Minnesota signed him in August 2010 and then released him in September.

The NFL suspended Walker for four games that December (most likely for use of some controlled substance) but then reinstated him in January. He never played again. He had great talent, but an aborted career.

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Brent Fullwood

One of the Packer Pro Bowl players least likely to return to Lambeau as an honorary team captain, Brent Fullwood, was born on October 10, 1963, in Kissimmee, Florida. The 5’11” 210-pound Fullwood attended Auburn where it later became known that he stopped going to class altogether during his senior season but maintained his eligibility. That year that he finished sixth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy.

Green Bay selected Fullwood with the fourth overall pick in the 1987 draft, but he struggled to learn the offense. He started just one game as a rookie, gaining 274 yards rushing on a paltry 3.3 average, although he did return kicks that year. In fact, his most memorable rookie moment came in the first exhibition game against the Broncos in August when he broke away on the opening kickoff only to fumble the ball out of bounds on the Denver two-yard line without being touched.

New coach Lindy Infante brought in a new offense in 1988, one in which the running backs were expected to catch passes as well, but that was a skill that Fullwood had yet to acquire. He did start 10 games that season and gained 483 yards rushing. The following year it was Majik Time, with the Packers having surprising success behind improvisational quarterback Don Majkowski. Fullwood gained a career record 821 yards rushing in ’89 and was named first alternate to the Pro Bowl. When the Bears Neal Anderson skipped the game due to injury, Fullwood was added to the squad, although he got no touches in the Pro Bowl game.

Even that season had question marks, though. Fullwood rushed for 434 yards in the first five weeks of the season and then gained just 387 in the last two-thirds of the year. Everything fell apart quickly in 1990. Fullwood had nearly been traded to Cleveland for quarterback Mike Pagel in ’89 and was being actively shopped during training camp in ‘90. After all, the Packers had selected runner Darrell Thompson with a first-round pick in the draft. However, Fullwood injured his knee and missed three weeks of the preseason, so he ended up starting the season for Green Bay, but that lasted just five weeks.

At halftime of the week five contest against the Bears, Fullwood pulled himself from the game because he felt sick. That night, though, he was spotted happily dancing in a local club. Neither the fans nor the club were happy. Two days later, he was traded to the Browns for a seventh-round pick. He would appear in just one game with the Browns, as a kick returner, and then his career was over.

Fullwood had a host of problems. First, he was a fumbler, coughing up the ball 15 times in 533 touches as a Packer. That’s one fumble every 35.5 touches. Not only does that contrast sharply with say Edgar Bennett (once every 169 touches) but also with known fumbler Ahman Green (once every 65 touches). Fullwood also struggled to learn the offense and had a tentative relationship with running back coach Willie Peete. Of most significance, he would not play hurt and was not considered a dependable player.

When Fullwood was traded to Cleveland, linebacker Brian Noble commented, “When I talk to players around the league that have played against him when he’s on, they are in awe of him. I think Brent Fullwood has all the ability any back in the NFL could ask for. At times I have questioned if his heart is in it as much as his body.”

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The Patriots Come to Town

Green Bay and New England don’t have a long history of meetings, but there have been some significant ones. From the time of the merger until the coming of the Wolf/Holmgren/Favre troika, the two teams faced off just four times, with the most memorable being on October 1, 1979, when the Pack upset the Pats 27-14 in the first Monday Night Football Game played in Green Bay.

Since 1994, the two teams have met eight times, including Super Bowl XXXI on January 26, 1997, which the Packers won 35-21. Overall, the two teams have split 12 matches, with New England up 6-5 in regular season tilts.

The last three matchups are interesting in that one of the two teams then went on to win the Super Bowl that season. On December 19, 2010, the Patriots prevailed 31-27 in Foxboro, with Matt Flynn starting in place of the injured Aaron Rodgers. Flynn played well, but the following week, Rodgers returned, and the Packers won their last six games including Super Bowl XLV.

The teams met again on November 20, 2014, and the Packers triumphed 26-21 in Lambeau as Rodgers bested Brady. Both teams left the stadium 9-3 and end up 12-4, but the Packers choked in the NFC title game in Seattle, while the Patriots eked out a Super Bowl victory over those same Seahawks two weeks later.

Four years ago, Brady’s 7-2 Patriots easily handled the floundering 3-4-1 Packers 31-17 in New England. By season’s end, Packer coach Mike McCarthy would be fired, while Bill Belichick would earn his sixth championship ring as head coach with the Pats SB win over the Rams.

So can the two teams keep the streak alive in 2022? Will one of them end the season as champion?

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