Packers fans who followed the team in the 1980s and ’90s remember No. 91, a defensive lineman who was known for his toughness and resilience, if not his football pedigree.

A fifth-round pick out of Arizona State in 1985, he needed to be tough. Why? Because in being selected by the Green Bay Packers, he was about to be plunked into the middle of a very tough time for the franchise. Green Bay’s overall record during that decade was a less-than-middling 71-85-4, and sometimes it looked a lot worse, with a couple of 4-12 campaigns thrown in there. (If the Lombardi era was Green Bay’s “glory years,” Packers historian Cliff Christl has written, the 1970s and ‘’80s were the “gory years.”)

But Noble was game, and he had good size for an inside linebacker at 6-3, 250 pounds. He led the team in tackles three times between 1986 and1989, tallied 14 career sacks, picked off three passes and recovered 11 career fumbles – five of those coming in 1987, a season that was shortened due to a players’ strike. He recorded more than 500 tackles during his career.

It’s arguable that Noble should be enshrined in the Packers Hall of Fame. He probably would be if most of the teams he played for had been more successful.

From 1985 until 1993, Noble’s toughness was on display; he missed only four games due to injury in his career – quite a feat for an inside linebacker who was racking up collisions every week during the season – and for at least most of that run being on such bad teams. 

While he went into his college career with a reputation as being immature and selfish, he matured and ultimately established himself not just as a good player but a team leader for the Packers. Noble certainly was respected, and not just by his teammates.

"I think he plays the inside linebacker position as well as anybody," former Chicago Bears head coach (and tight end) Mike Ditka said in 1988, per Christl in an article about “True Grit” Packers from the lean years. "... When you look at the overall picture of a football player, you have to look at how guys approach a game. Are their hearts in it? He lines up and plays like the old guys played. I doubt that Ray Nitschke played with any more enthusiasm than Brian Noble does."

Unfortunately, Noble’s longevity and availability came to an end in early 1993 due to a torn ACL in his right knee. And ironically, it happened just as the Packers were beginning to win in the Ron Wolf and Brett Favre era. Had he not been injured, he would have been able to finally play in a playoff game for Green Bay.

Of course, it’s also documented that Noble wasn’t going to be long for the Packers. In Christl’s four-volume book “The Greatest Story in Sports,” he quotes Noble as saying in 2001, "(Wolf) said to me, 'You're not a great football player, but you are a solid football player. Somebody who can play the game. But realize this, you are here only until I can replace you.'"

Ouch.

After he retired from the NFL following the 1993 season, Noble served as president of the Green Bay Blizzard, an indoor football team. He and his wife Cindy also formed A Noble Cause, a charity for children with cancer, after their own daughter Amanda battled cancer herself.