Reggie White Wanted Back W/The Pack
Andrew Brandt writes in his column for the National Football Post that Reggie White initially asked to come back to the Packers when coming back out of retirement.
By PackerAaron
Andrew Brandt dropped this in his latest column over at the National Football Post:
When NFL free agency finally arrived in 1993, the biggest catch of all, Reggie White, defied common wisdom and went to Green Bay for the stated reason of advice from a higher power and the unstated reason of much more money than anywhere else.
White changed the image of the franchise with his decision. I remember that he retired on the day I started in Green Bay, February 17, 1999, but later unretired and inquired about returning to the team. In a scenario that was to play out again with Brett Favre, the Packers denied his request to rejoin the team, although White was allowed to go to chosen second choice, the Carolina Panthers.
Emphasis mine.
As well as I can recall, most reporting around White's return to the NFL centered around the Panthers "wooing" White out of retirement. Yes, the Packers had to give up his rights, but I don't recall ever reading that White had asked to come back to the Packers.
Of course, we lived in a different age then. Had that happened today, I'm sure we would have been treated to several websites like "bringreggieback.com" and the like, and Ron Wolf would no doubt be the most hated man in Green Bay with huge 40-person rallies being staged at Lambeau so that fans could tell him what a fool he was.
Or something like that...
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Comments (10)
July 06, 2010 at 04:04 pm
My only question would be how does Brandt know this? I agree that it would have been bigger news today, but that would still have been pretty big back then, right?
Go Pack Go!
PackerAaron
July 06, 2010 at 04:19 pm
Brandt was in the front office at the time.
July 06, 2010 at 04:25 pm
The Panthers weren't "wooing" Reggie. His higher power was speaking to him. Namely, his wife.
Great girl, but she was all about the money.
July 07, 2010 at 06:54 pm
She had two kids to look after. Gene Robinson, Reggie's teammate in GB and good friend, talked about wooing Reggie to Carolina. After his prostitution scandall in 1998, Reggie was one of the few people that stood by him.
July 06, 2010 at 05:41 pm
I am so looking forward to training camp starting.
July 06, 2010 at 09:13 pm
I loled, albeit it is interesting i just can't wait for training camp+season to start.
The world cup is ending this Sunday and i will be officially out of things to watch.
July 06, 2010 at 10:24 pm
White had gotten himself involved in a couple of politically controversial issues at the end of his Packer career. In March of 1998, he made a speech that was interpreted as being racially stereotyping and earned him a lot of criticism. Later than year, he used the television show 20/20 to comment on his opposition to homosexuality, then appeared in anti-gay ads in newspapers with his Packer uniform, without the consent of the team or the NFL.
I do suspect that the Packers weren't too upset about distancing themselves from White by the time he asked to come out of retirement.
http://www.tundravision.com/2009/10/why-exactly-does-white-get-free-pass...
July 07, 2010 at 09:40 am
Why are we talking about justice and fair treatment for Voldemort again? I can't see how this pseudo-therapeutic, revisionist crap can improve our season.
Can we go back to discussing just how tough Aaron Rodgers is? And how witty he is on Twitter? Or maybe how this new guy Bulaga will become a miracle left tackle when poor Chad Clifton is ailing and how the O-Line will cohere brilliantly early on because we'll let Colledge do the same job for a while. We could talk about how we're looking forward to saying what a terrible and inexplicable fluke that Tampa Bay game was last year. I'm personally looking forward to realizing just how wrong I was and how brilliant Coach McCarthy has always been.
And I'm looking forward to seeing that brilliant coaching in action, in particular on October 24, 10 am PDT. 'Cause You Know Who playing You Know Where is not the same thing as Reggie White playing for the Panthers. This is as far as I'm willing to entertain that argument.
GO PACK GO!!!
July 07, 2010 at 04:23 pm
Here is an old article:
<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=100870&page=1" rel="nofollow">Reggie White Comes Out of Retirement</a>
White, 38, met with Panthers all day today. He passed a physical in Charlotte, then traveled the 80 miles to training camp for a workout and a meeting with coach George Seifert.
His agent, Jimmy Sexton, said several procedural issues still needed to be worked out with the Panthers, and the Green Bay Packers still had to release him. Because White had one year left on his contract with the Packers when he retired after the 1998 season, they still hold his rights.
Original Deal
<a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n26_v83/ai_13690486/" rel="nofollow">Reggie White a Packer with $17 million pact - contract with Green Bay Packers</a>
White, 31, will be paid $3 million this season, and a $4.5 million signing bonus and a $1.5 million reporting bonus, meaning his total take this season would be $9 million. His 1994 salary would be $3.15 million, followed by $2.85 in 1995 and $2 million in 1996.
And from <a href="http://www.packers.com/history/hall_of_famers/white_reggie/" rel="nofollow">Packers.com</a>
1996 Re-signed by Packers to five-year contract extension, Dec. 12.
July 07, 2010 at 06:52 pm
Maybe there is more to this than has been reported. I thought it a little off when Harlan immediately used the analogy of Reggie tarnishing his career by coming out of his retirement during the 2008 Favre Fiasco. Not that it wasn't related, but I found it odd he used it as a point so quickly. Didn't think much of it at the time.