25 Green Bay Packers have been placed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Six more have a chance for enshrinement in 2019.
Three stalwarts from the Packers’ resurgence in the 1990’s are among the 102 former football players and coaches who are now nominees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2019.
Those three are:
– Safety Leroy Butler (1990-2001). Butler, the leader in the back seven of the Packers defense in the Mike Holmgren years, was named first-team All-Pro four times (1993, 1996-98) and made the Pro Bowl those same years, and has been named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame All-1990’s first team.
– Coach Mike Holmgren (1992-98). After nine years without a playoff berth, the Packers hired Holmgren to help rebuild a struggling franchise. Holmgren did exactly that, spurring the team to seven winning seasons, six playoff berths, two NFC championships and a win in Super Bowl XXXI.
– Wide receiver Sterling Sharpe (1988-94). Twice, Sharpe set NFL records for most catches in one season. He led the NFL three times in receiving, once in receiving yards and twice in receiving touchdowns. He was named first-team All-Pro three times and made five Pro Bowls.
Three other former Packers are on the list:
– Safety Nick Collins (2005-11). The “quarterback of the defense” for part of his tenure in Green Bay, he went to three Pro Bowls, led the NFL in interception return touchdowns in 2008 and pick-sixed Ben Roethlisberger for a touchdown in Super Bowl XLV, a game the Packers won.
– Defensive tackle Russell Maryland (2000). He spend the grand majority of his career in Dallas and Oakland, but joined the Packers in 2000 and started 16 games.
– Linebacker Seth Joyner (1997). Much of his career was with the Philadelphia Eagles, but he played 11 games with the Super Bowl XXXII Packers team in 1997.
– Punter Sean Landeta (1998). Again, a player who spent much of his career outside Green Bay, he played with the last Mike Holmgren team in 1998.
