Santana Dotson, Brett Favre and Bart Starr met with the media Saturday prior to presenting Gilbert Brown, Frank Winters and Al Treml (respectively) for induction into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.
When Frank Winters and Brett Favre first met back in 1992, the Packers center had no idea he was talking to a guy he'd be snapping the ball to.
Winters and Favre both arrived in Green Bay that year, Winters via Plan B free agency and Favre via a trade from the Atlanta Falcons. Staying at a local hotel in preparation for one of their first mini-camps as Packers, they introduced themselves to one another, and Favre - weighing a robust 252 pounds and sporting a plaid shirt and as he recalled it "real scruffy beard" - asked Winters what position he played.
"I play center," Favre remembers Winters saying. "Then he says to me, 'What do you play? Linebacker?'
"From that point on, we were inseparable."
So inseparable, in fact, that Winters never questioned whether his longtime buddy would show up to introduce him for his induction into the Packers Hall of Fame at the Lambeau Field Atrium on Saturday night. Defensive tackle Gilbert Brown and longtime video director Al Treml joined Winters in being inducted, while Favre received the team's 2007 MVP award and kicker Mason Crosby rookie of the year honors.
Despite all the current uncertainty surrounding Favre's future and the media circus it has generated, Favre held up his end, even wearing a sportcoat for the first time Winters could recall.
"What an unlikely friendship," Favre said. "From Union City, New Jersey and Kiln, Mississippi. I guess the old saying opposites attract is true.
"We just fed off each other throughout our career. We argued, we fought, we screamed at each other. He was definitely a matter-of-fact player, and what I mean by that, he was not afraid to tell you or tell the coaches what he felt or how impossible the block may be."
Winters, who played 11 of his 16 NFL seasons in Green Bay and was the team's starting center for eight straight years (1993-2000), didn't deny he told it like it was.
"I don't know if it's the offensive line that's just, I don't want to say hard-headed, but it's part of our nature, to say what they want to say," Winters said.
And Favre said something that put Winters in some pretty distinct company.
"In describing Frank, when you think of great linemen, there are some great names within this organization," Favre said. "You think of Thurston and Ringo and Kramer and Gregg. I think you need to think of Winters as well."
The same goes for some of the franchise's great defensive linemen, among whom Brown - one of only four true defensive linemen to play 10 years for the Packers (Dave Hanner, Henry Jordan and Ezra Johnson were the others) - holds his place as well.
Known as "The Gravedigger," Brown played on one of the greatest defensive lines in Green Bay history alongside fellow tackle Santana Dotson (his presenter for induction) and between ends Reggie White and Sean Jones.
"(Defensive coordinator) Fritz Shurmur told me to go out there and basically make the linebackers look good, and that's what I did," said Brown, who played for the Packers from 1993-99 and 2001-03. "I kept them clean.
"Sometimes I think with the defensive line we had that Mickey Mouse could have been an all-pro back there, because we kept our linebackers clean. That's what I pride myself on. If I had to take two (blockers) or if I had to take five, that's what I had to do to get the job done."
Brown also did that job with an affinity for the Packers organization and a love of his teammates that was second to none. He played his final season with a torn bicep muscle, but always said he was just "doing his job."
"It means the world to me," Brown said of being inducted into the Packers Hall. "I have shown time and time again how I feel about this team.
"When I walked down that hall with all those banners and stuff, my knees were shaking, the hair on the back of my neck was standing up. That's what this team means to me."
His teammates knew and appreciated it. Dotson, for one, called Brown his "compadre."
{sportsad300}"His commitment, his diligence and his passion for the game are unlike any other person I had the privilege of playing with," Dotson said.
Similar words were used to describe Treml and the way he performed his duties as video director for 38 years. Hired by Vince Lombardi in 1967, Treml missed two games that season (the only two he would miss in his entire career) because of an operation, and before heading out on a road trip to New York, quarterback Bart Starr stopped by the hospital to visit Treml.
A longtime friendship was born with Starr, who nominated Treml for induction into the Packers Hall of Fame and presented him Saturday night.
"I'm so pleased a person of his character and his class is going in there, because no Packer employee tenured longer than this gentleman did, during the time that he did, and succeeded to the level that he did, and in my opinion gained the admiration of all of those who were in similar positions all over the league," Starr said. "This man was truly, truly special."
There were a lot of special moments for Treml over his nearly four decades behind a camera. He recalled how Elijah Pitts used to try to bribe him $5 to leave plays he botched out of the film he'd produce for the coaches, and how one time assistant coach Jon Gruden came up to him on the plane after a road victory and told him the video package Gruden had specifically requested from Treml that week helped produce that day's key fourth-quarter touchdown.
"I had the greatest job in football, worked for a great organization, doing what I loved to do, and being paid for it," Treml said. "And now after I retire, to be rewarded for something that I love doing is almost unbelievable."
