It suddenly dawned upon the Cold, Hard Football Facts last night why so many Packers fans are distraught over the potential loss of their main man, No. 4 in your program and No. 1 in their hearts, Brett Favre.
These plucky little Cheeseheads live in a fantasy world where they believe that a single player among 22 starters is indispensable to the hopes and dreams of their team.
Packers fans, it seems, are no different than the people of North Korea,
brainwashed from childhood to believe the world would end and their pathetic lives would screech to a halt if their "Dear Leader" ever bid farewell. So fearful are they of life without Favre, that Packers fans seem perfectly content with their meager rice rations and 11 years of meager postseason success.
But Favre is not indispensable. In fact, pro football players, even the greatest, are highly dispensable commodities. Like the naval heroes of
the classic World War II action flick, even the greatest captains of the NFL's PT boats of pigskin are expendable.
If history is any indication, Favre might prove to be, well, a mere human – as utterly dispensable as every player who’s walked before him.
Of course, his departure may prove a tragedy for Packers fans. The organization may devolve into decades of uncompetitive chaos like they did with the departure of Vince Lombardi. But Favre’s no Lombardi and the Cold, Hard Football Facts show that the team may not only survive, it may even persevere, following the loss of its most recognizable player.
To provide a down-feather pigskin pillow of comfort to Packers fans, we looked at some of the most seemingly indispensable players in football history – and then we looked at what happened as these players were tossed into the trash bin of history.
Yes, it’s a select group of players. But this list proves that everyone in football can be replaced ... even Brett Favre.
He was expendable: Drew Bledsoe, QB, New England Patriots
Patriots fans viewed Bledsoe as the gun-slinging savior of pro football in New England. The franchise, as hard as it is to believe today, was floundering and destined for St. Louis back in the early 1990s. Then Bill Parcells and Bledsoe arrived on the scene in 1993 to inject enthusiasm into the fan base. And when one of those fans, Robert Kraft, bought the team in 1994, everything began to turn around for this most decrepit of football franchises.
Bledsoe was seen as part of a glorious Trinity of pro football in New England, the Son seated at the right hand of the Father (Kraft) and the Holy Tuna.
Football fans in New England thought the world revolved around Bledsoe’s right arm. Then Mo Lewis caved in Bledsoe’s chest and severed one of his arteries. Six states' worth of hopes collapsed on the very same play.
But a week later under a second-year nobody named Tom Brady at quarterback, the Patriots exploded for one of their greatest offensive outputs in years in a 44-13 win over Indy. Three Super Bowls victories followed over the next four seasons.
The once indispensible Bledsoe proved as expendable as the bikini bottoms on a Girls Gone Wild video.
He was expendable: Jim Taylor, FB, Green Bay Packers
Taylor was one of the last of the great fullbacks – a nasty Southern bulldog who would just as soon run over you as run around you, and equally adept at both arts. (A little known Cold, Hard Football Fact: Taylor owns the white-guy single-season rushing record with 1,474 yards in 1962.)
Paired with fellow Hall of Famer Paul Hornung, he gave the Packers, especially in the early 1960s, perhaps the greatest 1-2 tandem of ballcarriers in NFL history. But Taylor was the workhorse of the club, leading the team in rushing every year from 1960 to 1966.
Flush with pride after a decade of dominance and back to back NFL championships (including a victory in the first Super Bowl), Taylor told Lombardi before the 1967 season that he wanted more money.
Lombardi told Green Bay’s greatest ballcarrier to pound sand and shipped him to New Orleans. Taylor led the expansion 1967 Saints in rushing (with a meager 390 yards) and to a 3-11 record. Lombardi rode unknown running backs Jim Grabowski, Ben Wilson, Donny Anderson and late-season acquisition Chuck Mercein to
victory in the Ice Bowl and a record third straight NFL championship.
Green Bay’s greatest ballcarrier proved as expendable as a pack of parking lot bratwurst.
He was expendable: Joe Montana, QB, San Francisco 49ers
He led the 49ers organization out of mediocrity to become one of the great dynasties ever, with Super Bowl championships in 1981, 1984, 1988 and 1989.
But Montana was badly injured in the 1990 NFC championship game and, as a result, missed the entire 1991 season. He’d barely touch the field again for the 49ers.
Steve Young took over in 1991 and led the 49ers to eight consecutive seasons of 10 or more victories, matching the eight consecutive seasons of 10 or more wins the organization had enjoyed under his predecessor. Montana, meanwhile, was shipped off to the hinterlands of Kansas City.
Montana enjoyed some success his first year with the Chiefs, leading the team to its only conference title game since winning Super Bowl IV.
The 49ers, for their part, were never as successful under Young as they were under Montana, but they won Super Bowl XXIX with Young and remained one of the league’s preeminent powers under his leadership. And when Young left football after the 1999 season, he had
surpassed Montana as the top-rated passer in NFL history.
Montana, arguably the best quarterback of all time, proved as expendable as an Anchor Steam bottle cap.
He was expendable: Peyton Manning, QB, Tennessee Volunteers
Sure, we’re including his college years, but this is one of the most amazing stories in modern college football history.
Manning was the face of SEC football during his four years as a starter in Knoxville. The scion of southern football royalty, he set one passing record after another and prompted a boom of babies named Peyton across the Volunteer State.
Surely, the Tennessee football team would suffer an incredible letdown after one of the greatest players in the school's history was grabbed with the No. 1 pick in the 1998 NFL draft. Surely, Tennessee football fans would miss their Manning.
Except they didn’t miss him very long.
Instead, a team that went 11-2 under Manning in 1997 went 13-0 under unheralded Tee Martin in 1998. They won the national championship with a 23-16 victory over Florida State in the 1999 Fiesta Bowl and became the first team in school history (and one of the few teams in history, period) to march through a 13-game season without a single blemish.
He was expendable: George Shaw, QB, Baltimore Colts
It’s hard to overestimate the importance of Shaw to the Colts organization in the 1950s. The franchise had folded after a single, disastrous 1-11 season in the NFL in 1950. The organization resurfaced under new owner Carol Rosenbloom in 1953.
The Colts struggled with just six victories in their first two seasons, but got their first big break when they drafted Everybody’s All American George Shaw, a two-sport star at Oregon, with the No. 1 pick in the 1955 draft.
There was suddenly hope for this upstart NFL outfit. And then hope was bayoneted like a banzai attacker on Iwo Jima when Shaw went down with an injury early in the 1956 season. Surely, Colts fans thought, it would be a long time before they found a replacement for the face of their franchise and one of the game’s bright young stars.
And then a 23-year-old sandlot-league veteran named Johnny Unitas trotted in to take his place.
Shaw, the apparent savior of the franchise, proved as expendable as a molten crab shell in the Chesapeake Bay.
