Outtakes with Green Bay Packers legend Jerry Kramer
NFL hall-of-famer reflects on using anger as motivation, overcoming severe injuries, and a story of bitter rivals turned close friends
On Dec. 30, 1962 — sixty years to the day — the Green Bay Packers capped off one of the greatest seasons in franchise history.
On a chilly, wind-swept afternoon in New York City, the Packers held off the Giants 16-7 at Yankee Stadium for the NFL championship. Coach Vince Lombardi’s squad celebrated back-to-back titles, frustrating the Giants again after routing New York 37-0 in the ‘61 title clash in Green Bay. The Packers finished the season 14-1.
Jerry Kramer was the unlikely star of the game. While Kramer went into the Pro Football Hall of Fame for his play along the offensive line for 11 brilliant seasons, in the ‘62 championship game, Kramer’s kicking prowess saved the Packers. The fifth-year veteran banged three field goals in the blustery conditions, including a 30-yarder in the fourth quarter to push Green Bay’s lead to 16-7.
Paced by ferocious linebacker Ray Nitschke, the Packers’ defense stonewalled the Giants and Kramer’s clutch kicking made a New York comeback out of reach. The Packers gave Kramer the game ball, while the sportswriters covering the game voted Nitschke the MVP, rewarding him with a sparkling new Corvette.
A few weeks ago, I had the awesome opportunity to interview Kramer over the phone for a feature story on the ‘62 Packers for Packerland magazine. Gravelly voiced and still sharp as a tack at nearly 87, the hall-of-famer recalled several intriguing details and captivating stories from that memorable season. He also swayed off topic a bit and shared some compelling memories that most Packer fans have likely never heard, and I couldn’t help but share here.
The Packers’ only blemish on a nearly perfect resume in ‘62 came on Thanksgiving Day. Lombardi loathed playing on a Thursday — he felt his team didn’t have enough time to rest and prepare for the next contest — and Green Bay looked off in a 26-14 loss.
Kramer: “There’s a power in anger. There’s an old, fundamental saying: ‘Anger makes you strong, fear makes you weak.’ Now, I think anger makes you strong, lack of emotion makes you weak. We didn’t have anything to get angry at Detroit about. We had beat them on a regular basis.
I had an experience in (high school) that showed me the difference between anger and passiveness or lack of emotion. I shot myself with a 10-gauge double-barreled shotgun when I was like 15 or 16. The arm was pretty much shattered on the side. I got both barrels. … I think I was a junior in high school and I wanted to throw the shot put and the discus, which I had done for some years. I didn’t want to be a cripple. I just desperately wanted to be normal like one of the guys.
I threw the shot put about 42 or 45 feet my senior season and I qualified for the (Idaho) state track meet in Boise. Well, I traveled down to Boise and there’s probably 7,000 people there in a stadium that held about 40,000. It was a big crowd to me and for us, from Sandpoint. I’m warming up, taking about a half hour. I’m getting ready to step in the ring and I hear on the loudspeaker: ‘And now, from Sandpoint, Idaho… Jerry Kra-MER!’
I was the first to guy to throw, so the whole world was looking at me, it seemed like. I stepped into the ring and throw the shot put and I was intimidated by the crowd and the number of people, that loudspeaker, the whole mess, and I throw the shot put about 30 feet. There were four judges and the conversation was like, ‘Well, it went way up there, you got to mark it, there’s indentations… he didn’t scratch!” Fifteen minutes of that bullshit goes by and they finally decide to give me another throw because they couldn’t mark my first throw. Now, I’m mad. I’m angry with myself. I’m really burning. I step back into that ring and throw 51-10. I set a new state record. Broke a 17-year-old record with my… shot gun arm.
So, that emotion, that anger, that passion, those juices, whatever the hell it is, makes a dramatic difference versus ho-hum. I harnessed that and for the rest of my career in football if there was anything I really wanted to do I would get just a little bit angry. Not a stupid anger, not uncontrolled anger, not a penalized anger, but just enough to get me up on my toes and get me on edge and to be a little angry. I would make up things in my mind like somebody killed my dog, raped my wife, shot my kids and burned my house, whatever I could come up with to get angry. In one form or another, that’s what a lot of these games are determined on.
You could see that from Detroit. Green Bay had beaten them like five years in a row and came out like ‘da da dut da da… well, we’re going to have a day. Whoa, what a game we’ll have.’ And they’re like, ‘You rotten son of a bitch, you no good…’ They were angry and that’s a common thing in the game, that attitude, hunger, burn, fire… it makes a dramatic difference. I think that’s what happened in Detroit that Thanksgiving Day.”
Twice a season for a decade, Kramer battled Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras, the “Mad Duck.” The two competitors were fierce rivals on the field and there was some animosity after their careers ended, Kramer’s in ‘68 and Karras’ in ‘70. Eventually, the rivalry cooled and the two former combatants became close friends and kept in touch until Karras’ death in 2012.
Kramer: “Alex Karras and I developed a pure hatred for one another. I signed up to call some Canadian football games about four or five years after I retired. A week later, Alex signed to do Canadian football. I thought, ‘What in the hell are you doing? Do you have any idea who that is and what type of relationship we have? We’ve been trying to kill each other for 10 years.’ Well, they had already made the deal and we go to our first game up in Canada. (During the broadcasts) Alex would say something and then I’d contradict him and so forth. It was like I was really still playing.
The second week, I go up a day early — I want to watch practice and get more familiar with the players and the game. I’m sitting there with two or three folks who had picked me up at the airport and taken care of me. Alex walks in the stadium and there’s not a single individual in the stands, all the players are on the field. There’s three of us sitting on the grass watching practice and he’s kind of trapped. He’s got to come over and say hello or else sit by himself. He comes over and says, ‘Hi, Jer. How you doing?’ I said, ‘I’m doing great, how you doing?’ ‘I’m doing great. We had some great games against each other, didn’t we?’ *(After the Packers won Super Bowl II, Kramer co-authored a book, “Instant Replay” with legendary sports broadcaster and writer Dick Schapp).
I said, ‘Yeah, Alex, we did. I remember the last game we played in Green Bay. I’m trying a 52-yard field goal and you come in late, hit me with a forearm and said, ‘Stick that in your book, you cocksucker!’ (Laughs) We both giggled. He starts turning red and is like ‘Oh, yeah, right.’ Well, I ended up going back to Detroit with him. He had a TV show called ‘Late Night Detroit’ that he had me on. He ended up doing a lot of those wild horse movies (as an actor). I got a call to do an interview once and I had a lot of nice things to say about him. He called and was just pissin’ his pants. He was tickled to death for the nice words. We really did become pretty good pals.”
NFL players were tough as nails back in the ‘60s. Kramer endured several injuries throughout 11 hard-fought seasons, including a broken leg that kept him out of the ‘61 championship.
Kramer: “I broke my leg above the knee and separated the bones above the ankle. They had to put a stone bolt with the screwhead, square nut and two washers about the size of 50 cent pieces on either side of the ankle and then put the nut on it and pull the ankle back together. It hurt like a son of a bitch for about 10 or 12 days, but it made the ankle OK. It cured it.”
For the most part, the ‘60s Packers possessed a “team first” attitude that drove them to unprecedented heights. But… on even the best teams, there’s always a player or two who gets too big for his britches.
Kramer: “I remember sitting next to my substitute, a kid named Danny Grim. Danny was a little arrogant. He had started a game and was due to start the next game against Detroit. We had a wonderful attitude on that team. Fuzzy (Thurston) would lose his job to (Gale) Gillingham and Fuzzy would sit with Gilly and coach him, give him all the keys that he had picked up and all the information he held. I go over to Danny Grim and say, ‘Danny, let’s sit together and I’ll tell you a few things about Alex (Karras).’ Danny said, ‘Oh Jerry, I think I got it.’ I was thinking, OK. During that game, Alex knocked Danny on his ass, knocked his helmet off, slapped his face and (Danny) left the ball game. I got my job back.”