New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter announced this week that he will retire after the 2014 season. I’m not a Yankees fan and I usually root against the Bronx Bombers in the playoffs, but I always liked and respected Jeter.
Jeter was really good. He came across as a nice guy. He never got into legal trouble. He chased around beautiful women. And he projected an aura of coolness without coming across as overly arrogant. There really wasn’t anything to dislike about the guy.
As a Packers fan, what’s the closest comparison to Jeter in the NFL? What player caused the Packers a lot of grief over the years, but you still liked, respected, and even found yourself cheering for if he wasn’t playing the Packers?
Here are mine:
Barry Sanders
I don’t think you can call yourself a football fan if you didn’t enjoy watching Sanders. Yes, he had all the fancy footwork and juke and jive moves, but he would also put his head down and crash forward. An amazing spectacle on the field and a class act off of it.
Adrian Peterson
It’s absolutely terrorizing to watch Peterson manhandle the Packers defense. He’s a total mismatch for the light-hitting and reactionary Dom Capers D. But man, everything about Peterson just screams football. He’s the perfect package of grace, grit, explosiveness, elusiveness, resiliency and toughness.
Charles “Peanut” Tillman
It’s maddening to watch Tillman punch the ball out and force fumbles against the Packers. It’s a thing of beauty when he does it to other teams. Tillman has forced 40 fumbles in his 10-year career, including a mind-boggling 10 in 2012.
Larry Allen
This one is kind of obscure, but I always respected the Cowboys offensive line during their glory years and Allen was an absolute monster paving the way for Emmitt Smith. Allen could bench 705 pounds, squat 905 and became a hall-of-famer in 2013. He’s not the first player that comes to mind when thinking about players that gave the Packers trouble, but he deserves to be on the list.
Let me know who makes your list in the comments section.
Packers news, notes and links
- The Packers shuffled around a few members of their coaching staff this week and added a few new faces. Are the moves meaningful change? Or something that isn’t that big of a deal, but we need to talk about it since we’re in the downtime of the offseason? My money is on the latter. John Rehor covers the topic over at PackersTalk.com.
- This report says the Packers will be spenders in free agency. A couple thoughts on that: 1) I’ll believe it when I see it; 2) How much will the Packers have left to spend if they re-sign a number of their own free agents? 3) The report says the Packers want to get lighter on the defensive line. I wrote about the Packers being too fat up front back in December; 4) The author of the report loses a lot of credibility when the refers to B.J. Raji as a “standout defensive lineman.”
- According to a survey of NFL mock drafts conducted by the fine folks over at CheeseheadTV, the Packers will take Nortre Dame nose tackle Louis Nix in the first round. Nix is 6-foot-3, 340 pounds so he doesn’t exactly fit the narrative of the Packers getting leaner and more athletic up front. He also tore his meniscus last season.
- Mike McCarthy’s comments on Michael Sam — the Missouri prospect who revealed he was gay this week — are yet another reason why I’m proud to have McCarthy coaching my favorite team.
- Aaron Nagler (formerly of CheeseheadTV and now at Bleacher Report) and Matt Miller (BR’s NFL draft guru) have a new podcast called #Football that I highly recommend.
- This news on Darren Sharper is disturbing. We think we really know these guys….
Non-Packers links and other nonsense
- From a police report in the town where I grew up: “Woman stated she was woken up by being hit in the face with a burrito and that the male subject broke her computer. Officers learned that both subjects were highly intoxicated. The man said he would pay for a new computer. Both subjects said they were going to watch a Christmas movie and that everything was OK.”
- The Wells report on the Richie Ingonito/Jonathan Martin/Miami Dolphins situation is mind-boggling. My high school and college buddies and I rip on each other a lot, and sometimes the language can get colorful and lines crossed, but it’s nothing like this. Racism, homophobia, threats of violence, general douche-baggery. Ugh. It’s all in there.
- Packers guard T.J. Lang asks us to not lump in all NFL players with what’s happening in Miami.
- And the brown medal goes to…
- Chipotle, a big giant corporation, is attacking American farmers for being…big giant corporations. I don’t know what’s more ridiculous: the fact that Chipotle thinks we’re stupid enough to buy into its nonsense or the fact that, well, a lot of people are stupid enough to buy into this nonsense. Since you’re reading ALLGBP.com, I know you’re not stupid. If you appreciate American farmers, stop supporting Chipotle. Eat at an actual local restaurant, not one that pretends to be.
Adam Czech is a a freelance sports reporter living in the Twin Cities and a proud supporter of American corn farmers. When not working, Adam is usually writing about, thinking about or worrying about the Packers. Follow Adam on Twitter. Twitter .
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Fran Tarkington.
I hate to say it about a Bear, but I always respected Brian Urlacher. He played the game the right way, hard-nosed and full throttle, but would help a guy up after making a tackle. A fierce competitor, but respected the game and always seemed to be around the ball making a play (too often against the Pack). I appreciated the fact that he didn’t showboat after a play, just got back to the huddle and played.
That being said, he was a Bear. He still sucks. But I say that with utmost respect.
Your post reminds me of the shtick of a comedian named Dom Irrera. He always had a bit in his routine about ‘the great Italian eraser-statements – “but I don’t mean that in a bad way”, and “with all due respect”‘.
Without ANY hesitation, I respected the hell out of Mike Singletary.
MIKE. SINGLETARY.
As a player, yes indeed. He was definitely worthy of respect. However, he went down a few notches as a head coach.
“Adrian Peterson
It’s absolutely terrorizing to watch Peterson manhandle the Packers defense. He’s a total mismatch for the light-hitting and reactionary Dom Capers D. But man, everything about Peterson just screams football. He’s the perfect package of grace, grit, explosiveness, elusiveness, resiliency and toughness.”
Right up to where his child died living under horrid unstable conditions and never having seen him until it was too late…doesn’t he have a couple more not living with him…lets just glance over that because he’s ‘all about football’.
Tough question. Think it’s a tie between Brian Urlacher or Walter Payton. Both were the epitome of class, and superior football players.
Wouldn’t mind seeing Michael Sam as a mid-round draft pick in GB based on what is said here: he’s a good football player, and has the athleticism the Packers SHOULD be looking for in a college tweener DE that they want to convert to an OLB.
According to Tony Pauline, Michael Sam really struggled as a 3-4 OLB at the Senior Bowl. Pauline thinks his best fit is as a one gap DE (He actually said only fit). He thinks the same about Dee Ford too which really surprised me considering many others felt Ford was shooting up draft boards.
I was unaware of that! Thanks for the note!
Just to be clear, I assume “One Gap DE” means “Pass rush specialist DE”, yes?
Like, KGB or something?
Its a simplistic but fairly accurate description. One gap just has to do w/ how much ground they need to control, 2 gap obviously mean controlling both side of an OL. And one gap is more of a run down term that doesn’t apply as much to pass rushing.
Thanks, I know what a ‘gap’ is, I’ve just never heard anyone refer to a “one gap DE” before.
For what it’s worth, “Gap control” is indeed a term used to describe run responsibility, but the term GAP is generic and just refers to the particular space between the O linemen- “A” are the two gaps between the C and the OGs, “B” the gaps between the OG’s and the OT’s, and “C” is outside the tackles. When a designed blitz is called or when a player is tasked with rushing the passer, Gaps certainly do apply as much to passing. Plays are drawn up and players are told to rush through the A gap, etc and so forth.
I don’t have any opinion on Michael Sam that relates to football- I’ve never seen him play, so I don’t have a dog in this fight at all. That said, can anyone expect a kid who has played DE to show up at the senior bowl and play a new position after just a few days of practice and thrive as opposed to struggling?
Keep in mind that 3-4 teams have historically looked to collegiate DE “tweener” types to convert to 3-4 OLB’s and they have always known it to be a process that really takes 2-3 years to complete, not just a handful of practices before the senior bowl.
For me, I feared and respected Johnny Unitas back in the day. The Packers played the Colts 2x a year back then and usually for the old Western Conference title. We always knew that no lead was safe against Unitas and that he could and would make any throw from anywhere on the field. Also, back in the day Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus, yes both Bears, but among the best to ever play their respective positions. Good job by MM on Michael Sam and sad to learn about Sharper. Thanks, Since ’61
One of the few times anything associated with Bleacher Report has been highly recommended.
Matt Miller is the only thing at BR worth spending time reading. I don’t always agree w/ him, but he’s pretty credible. The rest of BR is garbage!
I’m old enough to have a couple… Tarkenton in my youth, Sanders early adulthood and recent Peterson.
But in the end I gotta go w/ Walter Payton! A true HOF’er and the guy has a good guy award named after him. Can’t beat that!
When I was in college and the Packers stunk, my housemate used to get tickets from work for next to nothing at the end of the season. I remember going to Lambeau in back to back years (once in an ice storm and once in really cold weather) in December pretty much just to watch Barry Sanders play. He was worth the price of admission.
Adam, I made the exact same comment over on CHTV about the “Standout defensive lineman” thing. End of reading, author has no credibility.
I’ll throw Megatron into the fear/respect discussion.
Gayle Sayers was one that always drove me nuts. He was so agile and able to make the defense miss. Good guy too! Why is it always Bears that make us nuts?
Adam, thanks for standing up for the farmers! I grew up on a small family farm in KY, no doubt similar to many small farms in Wisconsin. Sure, there are a lot of huge chicken and hog operations, and people who have tens of thousands of acres. Those aren’t real farms. Chipolte is off the list.
Woah, woah. No need to diss Chipotle here. I think the GMO vs organic debate is best left for a non-packers website