MILWAUKEE — John Brockington recently came back to Milwaukee as part of the Packers Speaker Series luncheon.
When TODAY'S TMJ4 main sports anchor Lance Allan asked the Packers Hall of Famer about the running back position being devalued, Brockington didn't mince words.
"They've minimized it. ... That knucklehead Mel Kiper Jr. says he'd never draft a running back in the first round. So they said, so what about Jim Brown? No. Barry Sanders? No. Emmitt Smith? No. See? (Expletive), excuse my French, you know? I mean c'mon. Those guys are game changers. If you have Barry Sanders in your backfield? And he can run that ball and shorten that clock up? C'mon!" Brockington said with some disgust in his voice.
Allan also asked about how the 1960s Lombardi Packers and the Favre and Rodgers era teams overshadow the teams and players of the 70s and 80s.
"It's football, it's sports. When you win? You get the accolades. When you don't? You get the rock. You know, so I didn't play on very good football teams," Brockington said.
"'72 was the only winning year we had. And I had good years, my first three years of you know, off the charts. But, you know in the long run, you know, we weren't very good. And so, you know, in the 60s they get all the acclaim, and they should. They did great things, three championships in a row. Two Super Bowls. They deserve it. We didn't do that. So we don't deserve that kind of acclaim. But we did have some good ballplayers. You know, Willie Buchanon. You know, I'll bet you he was just as good as Herb Adderley. I'll bet you money when he was right, he was just as good as Herb. You know, but we didn't play on teams that did the job. But you know they bring us back. They still recognize us. Fans still know; the fans know everything. They know who played well and who didn't. And so, yeah, even though our team didn't perform well, we're still Green Bay Packers."
For more from Brockington, including how the Packers' new emphasis on running could help Aaron Rodgers, his thoughts on Bart Starr and his health since having a kidney transplant, click on the video link for the raw interview.
