Historically, it's been a pretty amazing number for the Packers. Hall of Fame Herb Adderly wore it for Lombardi's teams in the 60's and in the 80's, Tim Lewis was pretty good in his own right, but since then, it's been pretty nondescript.
The last two guys to sport it were DuJuan Harris from 2012 to 2014 and Charlie Peprah from 2006 to 2011. Each had their moments, to be sure. Harris helped resurrect the Packers running game down the stretch in 2012, and was a pretty fun guy to watch as he did it.
He couldn't ever really duplicate that success, though, and was released that offseason.
Peprah was a bit of an also-ran at safety, but limited though he may have been, he did have one of the most fun to watch interception returns in recent memory in 2011:
But the guys I want to talk about are even less notable in Packers history than either Harris or Peprah. This pair wore 26 in the four years before Peprah and Harris took it up, and combined for 26 tackles between them in their four years in the NFL.
I'm talking about Erwin Swiney and Jason Horton, of course, household names that they are. Each of them played two seasons with the Packers, Swiney from 2002 to 2003 and Horton from 2004 to 2005. And that's about really all there is to say about both Swiney and Horton, at least from a statistical perspective.
Sure, each of them have backstories. Each of them was among the better players at both their high school and college, and each of them surely produced a long list of highlights on their way to their sport's highest level.
But when it came to that level, neither of them was much more than an afterthought. Why? It's hard to say. The physical difference between a good player and a great one, or even an average one and a poor one, is very negligible. What made someone else a star and Swiney and Horton afterthoughts?
It's doubtful we'll ever know, or that anybody will ever figure out why one athlete made it and another didn't. The Packers have surely collected their share of success stories from guys who were unheralded but ended up as stars. If something would have gone differently, could either of Swiney or Horton been another one of those success stories?
What I want to know most of all, though, is if either of them have come to terms with it. Each of them has been out of the league for either more than or close to a decade now, but I wonder if they've come to terms with the fact that it ended the way it did. Are they satisfied with the way things turned out? Do they wonder if it could have gone differently? How do they deal with not knowing why it turned out the way it did?
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