Best moments in Green Bay Packers history
What are the best moments for each NFL franchise? Yahoo Sports provides our opinion, which you are free to disagree with (and we’re sure you will).
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5. Beating the Bears for the 2010 NFC title
The Green Bay Packers went seamlessly from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers, which ensured more than a quarter century of Hall-of-Fame quarterback play. The 2010 Packers team was the highlight of the Rodgers’ era as the team won Super Bowl XLV, but the NFC championship game against the Chicago Bears might have been a bigger highlight than the Super Bowl. For a Packers team to go to Soldier Field and beat its longest-standing rival in the biggest game the two teams have ever played, then hoist the George Halas Trophy for winning the conference title on the Bears’ home turf … it doesn’t get much better than that for Packers fans.
4. Ron Wolf strikes one of the greatest trades ever
Fans of a certain age might not understand the Packers went through more than 20 years of failure. The Packers were mostly terrible from 1968-92. In those years the Packers made the playoffs just twice, with just one win (in 1982, when the NFL expanded the playoffs to 16 teams due to a seven-game player strike). Nobody knew it at the time, but when general manager Ron Wolf traded a 1992 first-round pick to the Atlanta Falcons for a 1991 second-rounder with five career passes (and no completions) named Brett Favre, it changed everything. Starting with that move, the Packers have been on a wave of success that has lasted 25 years and counting.
3. Titletown returns thanks to Desmond Howard
The 1996 Packers are a bit underrated in history. They led the NFL in points scored and points allowed. The Packers won 16 games that season, including playoffs, and 14 wins were by double digits, including all three playoff games. League MVP Brett Favre led the offense and all-time great Reggie White led the defense. Super Bowl XXXI was close late in the third quarter when Curtis Martin scored to bring the New England Patriots within six. But then took the ensuing kickoff back 99 yards, taking the air out of the Patriots. The Super Bowl XXXI win was Green Bay’s first championship since Super Bowl II.
2. Super Bowl I
The 1960s Packers won five titles in seven years and had plenty of great moments, and some are obscured because most people act like NFL history started with the first Super Bowl. The 1962 Packers should be in the conversation for greatest NFL team ever, but really just hold the crown of the greatest team nobody mentions. The most historic moment of that dynasty happened at the Los Angeles Coliseum in January of 1967, as the Packers won the very first Super Bowl. The entire weight of the NFL was riding on them as they took on the Kansas City Chiefs from the rival AFL, and they pulled away in the second half for a 35-10 win.
1. Bart Starr wins the ‘Ice Bowl’
The 1967 Packers weren’t Vince Lombardi’s best team, which made their championship run even more special. The highlight was the NFL championship game on New Year’s Eve against the Dallas Cowboys, with temperatures of 13 degrees below zero and a wind chill of 48 below zero. The “Ice Bowl” was the coldest game in NFL history, and perhaps the greatest. Trailing late, Bart Starr led the Packers to the 1-yard line. During a timeout Starr suggested to Lombardi they call “31 wedge,” but instead of handing it off Starr said he was better off sneaking it in because running backs couldn’t get their footing on the frozen field. Starr says Lombardi told him, “Run it, and let’s get the hell out of here.” The rest is history.
