The Packers are coming off a 17-0 loss to Arizona, the franchise’s first full-game shutout loss in an exhibition since 1987.
Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered the Packers then as he does now, and on Thursday, he recalled how then-Packers coach Forrest Gregg put his team through demanding practices after the 33-0 exhibition loss to Washington that Gregg termed “childish mediocrity.”
McGinn recalled watching a practice where Gregg made the players do “what seemed to be as many as 75 up-downs.”
Wrote McGinn: “Even I winced.”
Former Packers guard Rich Moran remembered how much Gregg demanded from his players after the defeat.
“You knew that week was going to be extremely difficult,” Moran told the Journal Sentinel. “The CBA didn’t prohibit Forrest from backing up his postgame tongue-lashing in the form of double days and running, like it would today. Back then, the coach could take it out on you.
“It started with the up-downs, then it went to the sled, then it went to the practice, then it went to the running afterward. I’m not kidding. It was literally just trying to survive the camp.”
With clearly stated training rules in the CBA, such extended tough practices are now a thing of the past.
Imagine, though, if they weren’t. Could you imagine the Twitter play-by-play of those workouts?
