The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They were inducted into the NFL in 1921 and have called Lambeau Field their home since 1957. During their NFL tenure, they have won a record-breaking 13 league championships including nine Super Bowl NFL titles and four Super Bowl victories. But aside from their collective performance on the pitch, there are a number of stand-out players that have driven their team to victory. Continue reading to familiarize yourself with the greatest Green Bay Packers players of all time.
Don Hutson
Don Hutson was an American professional football player and assistant coach in the NFL. He spent his entire 11-year professional football career as an end for the Green Bay Packers. Under the helm of head coach Curly Lambeau, he led his team to victory in four NFL championship games and won three in 1936, 1939, and 1944. He also received the NFL’s coveted MVP award twice in 1941 and again in 1942 and held the record for touchdown receptions with 99 and a career high of 105. His record was eventually broken in 1989 by Steve Largent. Upon retiring in 1945, Hutson held a staggering 18 NFL records. As a result, he is one of the Green Bay Packers’ most prolific and most successful players of all time.
David Bakhtiari
David Bakhtiari is an offensive tackle for the Green Bay Packers. Since being drafted in 2013, he has made a name for himself as one of the greatest players to grace the field on behalf of the team. In 2020, he made headlines as the highest-paid offensive lineman in the history of the NFL. Despite a string of injuries that excluded him from the Green Bay Packers’ playoff run to the NFL championship game and left him physically unable to play during the team’s training camp, he is set to make a triumphant return with a clean bill of health. With the peak of his career with the Green Bay Packers coinciding with the rise of online sports betting, the 2010s saw a significant rise in American football fans getting involved with online sports betting. The move also triggered a nationwide sports betting resurgence with a great selection of online betting sites available for American football fans to place their bets.
Bart Starr
As a quarterback, Bart Starr won a record-breaking five NFL championships during his tenure with the Green Bay Packers from 1956 until 1971. He also led his team to victory during the first two Super Bowl tournaments in 1967 and again in 1968 and was the recipient of the Most Valuable Player award both times. He is, however, perhaps most well-known for his performance against the Dallas Cowboys during the 1967 Ice Bowl. With a mere 16 seconds to go, the Green Bay Packers were down by three points whilst the ball was at the one-yard line. In a surprise move, Starr ran across the end zone to secure a winning touchdown. This last-minute decision not only cemented his team as worthy winners but established Starr as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Green Bay Packers players of all time.
Paul Hornung
As one of head coach Vince Lombardi’s most prized players, Paul Hornung was perhaps the most well-known American football player both on the pitch as well as off the pitch during his career with the Green Bay Packers from 1957 until 1966. As one of the team’s most versatile players, he played as a halfback, quarterback, and placekicker. Nicknamed football’s golden boy, he also achieved the single-game playoff record during a 1961 NFL championship match against the New York Giants with 19 points and was awarded the NFL Most Valuable Player award the same year. In addition to this award, he was also named an All-Pro twice as well as a Pro Bowl twice during the duration of his professional career. Hornung had 62 career touchdowns in total, 66 field goals, and 190 extra points. In 1986, he was the latest Green Bay Packer to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame before being inducted into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame four years later in 1990.
Jerry Kramer
As one of the Green Bay Packers most celebrated players, Jerry Kramer was an All-Pro six times and named to three Pro Bowl teams during his 11-year career as an offensive lineman. One of his best performances came in 1962 during an NFL championship match against the New York Giants. With three field goals at the Yankee Stadium in the heart of New York City, he led his team to victory with a 16-7 finish. In the years that followed, Kramer continued to master the art of the power sweep including a last-minute push during an Ice Bowl tournament in 1968. Alongside Bart Starr, Jerry Kramer is one of the greatest Green Bay Packers players to emerge from the Vince Lombardi era of the 1960s. This is often regarded as the team’s golden age with three straight and five total NFL championships in the space of seven years. A staggering 44 years after he was first eligible for the title and after becoming a finalist during preliminary voting rounds ten times, he was finally inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018.
