-'BATTING' .750: Mike Sherman comes into tonight's contest with a combined 3-1 record against the Browns as a head coach. It includes a 2-1 mark in preseason and a victory (30-7) in 2001 in his only regular-season venture against the Ohioans.
The preseason record: 2000 - Packers 34, Browns 33; 2001- Browns 10, Packers 3; 2002 - Packers 27, Browns 20.
Overall, Sherman owns an 8-6-0 record in preseason competition.
-WITH THE ADDITION OF WESLEY WALLS, the Packers now have seven players on their roster with 10 or more seasons of NFL experience. Center Frank Winters, a 17-year professional, is the senior member of the group, followed by Walls, in his 15th season, quarterback Brett Favre, in his 13th campaign, and quarterback Doug Pederson, in his 11th season. The others - running back Lamar Smith, defensive end Joe Johnson, and nose tackle Gilbert Brown - all are in their 10th NFL seasons.
-QUICK QUOTE: Quarterback Brett Favre, discussing the addition of Walls during his weekly press conference Wednesday, asserted, "Walls can help us...he can help Bubba (Franks)."
Favre added: "Wesley has just unbelievable hands, because he makes it look so easy...And he's kind of sneaky fast. He doesn't look like he's really running but, before you know it, he's past you...And he knows how to set people up for routes.
"I hope he stays healthy...and I know the team hopes he stays healthy...because he can really help us."
-FOOTBALL IS NOT FAVRE'S only game. Additionally a pitcher of note who once struck out 15 batters in a game during his earlier, baseball-playing days, he also is a virtual scratch golfer.
Favre has good competition, incidentally, in teammate Ryan Longwell, with whom he occasionally gets together on the links. They are almost dead even from the handicap perspective.
"Brett's about a one," Longwell confided while addressing the subject, "and I'm about a one." Last year, for the record, Longwell played to a 1.2 handicap.
-LEGENDS VINCE LOMBARDI AND PAUL BROWN were opposing head coaches only once in their distinguished careers with the Packers and Browns, respectively, and on that occasion, Lombardi prevailed. It was in 1961, when his Packers defeated Brown's Browns, 49-17, in Cleveland's former Municipal Stadium on Oct. 15, en route to winning the first of five NFL titles under Lombardi.
-THE PACKERS AND BROWNS had a "good thing going" in the '60s. During a six-year span in that decade, they met five times in the "nightcap" of a preseason doubleheader in Cleveland, with each of the games drawing more than 80,000 fans to then-Municipal Stadium.
- POTENT 'PACKAGE:' Wide receiver/kick returner Antonio Chatman, making a substantial bid for employment as the Packers' KOR specialist, is a mere 5-9 and 177 pounds but he put up some big numbers in his young pro football career. Earlier this year, he set an Arena Football League record during its 2003 season, amassing 3,678 all-purpose yards(an average of 229.9 yards per game).
Chatman also became only the fourth player in AFL history to surpass the 1,000-yard mark in return and receiving yards, score 25 touchdowns and record 100 pass receptions.
His Packers opportunities have been limited in the first two preseason games but he has averaged a highly respectable 27.0 yards for 5 kickoff returns to date.
-ROOKIE MIDDLE LINEBACKER NICK BARNETT is the first Oregon State player ever to be selected by the Packers in the first round of the NFL draft., now nearing its eighth decade. Barnett is the 79th player the Packers have chosen in the opening round in the 69-year history of what is officially known as the NFL's annual selection meeting.
-NEXT WEEK: The Packers, with a three-week road trip behind them, will make their first Lambeau Field appearance of the 2003 preseason next Saturday night (Aug. 23) when they entertain the Carolina Panthers in the 54th annual Midwest Shrine Game. Kickoff is set for 7 o'clock CDT (Wisconsin time).
