This is a blast from the past, and you’ll have to bear with me for a moment.
Former Green Bay Packers’ backup quarterback Blair Kiel and his general stupidity were in the news recently.
Our man Blair, who played quarterback for the Packers from 1988 to 1991, is a belligerent drunk.
According to sources, Kiel struck a police officer at an Indianapolis Indians baseball game after the officer responded to a report that a woman was afraid to leave a restroom while Kiel was present. The officer escorted Kiel out of the ballpark and then… the incident.
Nice.
Many of you will remember Kiel as one of Don Majkowski’s caddies. At the time, the other backup was Anthony Dilweg (who came to my school when I was young and handed out photocopied autographed pictures – also a classy move).
Unfortunately for the Packers, both Kiel and Dilweg got on the field from time to time. After his career season in 1989, Majkowski never could stay healthy.
In 1990, Dilweg threw for 1,267 yards, 8 touchdowns and 7 interceptions while playing nine games in place of Majkowski. The next season, he was out of football and those 8 touchdowns, which are the thing of Dilweg family lore, can only be the result of having Sterling Sharpe to throw to.
In his four seasons in Green Bay, Kiel saw the field in seven games. Guess when. That’s right, in the Majkowski seasons of 1990 and 1991.
In those seven games, Kiel threw for 865 yards, 5 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. Again, Sterling Sharpe could be the only explanation for those 5 touchdowns. After his magical 1991 season, which produced the most touchdown passes of any season in his career (3), Kiel was out of football.
To put it mildly, these guys would have made Brian Brohm look good. Wait a second… that’s probably not true.
These guys would have made Matt Flynn look like and All Pro. Kiel, Dilweg and Majkowski’s injuries contributed heavily to Packers’ coach Lindy Infante losing his job in 1991. Infante wasn’t a bad coach, but he was dealt a bad hand (and some bad players).
Then again, if Infante hadn’t lost his job, the Packers probably never would have had the chance to hire Mike Holmgren and thus, wouldn’t have won the Super Bowl in 1996.
So there you have it, Blair Kiel, Anthony Dilweg and Don Majkowski are entirely responsible for the Packers last Super Bowl victory.
give it a rest guys. it’s time for everyone to move on. I doing great though – thanks! BK
I have not commented publicly since I heard that Blair passed away. I had a very difficult time believing that he had died for real. When I heard the reports that my buddy had passed it seemed like a news report that if it was really true it really wasn’t true in my mind at all. I had just exchanged emails with him days before congratulating him that his nephew had recieved a scholarship to his alma mater….,Notre Dame to play QB just like Blair did.
Blair and I were very close friends who had a relationship that was professional as teammates but more realistically like brothers that always made each other laugh our asses off when we worked together every day all day Preparing for the opponent that we were going to play that week. We had to spend so much time together during the days in meetings watching Game film along with our other qb teammate Anthony Dilweg and coach Lindy Infante. The three years or so that all of us worked together from 1988-1991 were some of the most fulfilling, proud years of my nfl career as well my life. Blair Helped me tremendously with creating a language of our own to signal in every play with hand signals and gestures and movements that were truly a communication system that all of us qb’s and Lindy could understand. Eventually our all pro Wr Sterling Sharpe and some of our other recievers caught on and learned what signals meant that they were involved in that play. It was truly our own form of sign language to communicate what play Lindy wanted me to call in the huddle. It required many hours of working with each i other every day to perfect this system. We all made it fun to work with one another for years. It was a very unique friendship that we shared with each other that supported each one off our positions as qb’s and leaders of those teams. Blair and I were roommates for many years during training camps and on the road for away gamesand got to know one another as brothers.
I just want Blair’s family to know that I will miss my brother BK and I’m sorry for waiting so long to express my sympathy for their loss. I will always be grateful for the times I was able to spend with my buddy Blair. Majik