Reggie White
Inducted: 2006
Defensive End: 1993-98
Height: 6-5; Weight: 291
College: Tennessee 1980-83
Honors:
- Inducted Pro Football Hall of Fame: 2006
- NFL All-Centennial Team: 2019
- NFL All-Time Team: 2000
- NFL 75th Anniversary Team: 1994
- NFL All-Decade Teams: 1980s, 1990s
- Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Year: 1998
- Associated Press All-Pro Team (chosen since 1940): 1995, '98
- Pro Bowl Selection (played since 1950): 1993, '94, '95, '96, '97, '98
- Press-Gazette All-Century Team: 1999
Reggie White was unquestionably one of the most dominant players in the history of the Green Bay Packers. But what was distinct, if not unique, about his place in team history was the impact he had on the franchise beyond the playing field.
His decision to sign with Green Bay in 1993 as an unrestricted free agent resulted in a complete makeover of what had been a moribund franchise for nearly a quarter-century.
Not only had the Packers won only one division title and one playoff game in 24 years, while finishing with a winning record only five times during that stretch, their image had been sullied like never before.
Numerous players, especially Blacks, who then constituted about 60 percent of NFL roster spots, along with star quarterbacks, who were the key to winning, dreaded the thought of playing in Green Bay. The team's fans, in turn, were so turned off that the no-show count for the final game at Lambeau Field during the Packers' extended famine exceeded 15,000.
All that changed on April 6, 1993, the day White announced that he was signing with the Packers.
The most coveted free agent in what was the first year of unrestricted free agency, the only defensive lineman in league history to have more sacks than games played, a seven-time Pro Bowl pick and "maybe the finest player who has ever played his position" in the words of Packers coach Mike Holmgren had become a Packer.
Not only was this peerless veteran free agent a bona fide superstar, he was Black.
A stigma that had haunted the Packers for almost 25 years and created doubt whether they could ever win again had been paradoxically erased with one signature. What many labeled "The Graveyard of the NFL" suddenly seemed heavenly to almost all players across the league – and, as it turned out, future players, as well.
Years of on-field prosperity followed.
A year-and-a-half before White's signing, team president Bob Harlan had set the rejuvenation in motion when he hired general manager Ron Wolf. But Wolf himself would later say it was White's signing that was "landscape-changing."
"I think you'd have to go a long way back (in Packers history) to find a move that has the initial impact this one has," Harlan said after White committed to the Packers. Jimmy Sexton, White's agent, chirped, "We shocked the world, didn't we?"
That was indisputable. A year earlier, White had told Sexton the only place he wouldn't play was Green Bay.
White was 31 when he signed with the Packers and yet he continued to outperform what many already believed was an unparalleled resume.
After playing his last game with the Packers, he held the NFL record with 192½ sacks, including a then team-record 68½. He was selected to six more Pro Bowls, increasing his career total to 13. He was named the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year in 1998.
Most important to White, he achieved what he always said was his ultimate goal: winning a Super Bowl. The Vince Lombardi Trophy was the prize and White helped set the stage for the presentation by breaking a Super Bowl record with three sacks as the Packers climaxed the 1996 season with a victory over New England for their 12th NFL title.
"He was the type of guy you had to formulate your game plan with him in mind," said Jim Hanifan, who was considered one of the best offensive line coaches ever during his 30 years in the NFL. "There are very few people you accord that to. Off the top of my head, Lawrence Taylor and Reggie were the only two."
At 6-foot-5 and 290-plus pounds with 4.6 speed in the 40-yard dash, White stood out as a rare specimen among all NFL players.
Size, speed, strength, mobility – he had all the physical traits necessary to achieve greatness. He was a master technician and was blessed with an uncanny ability to jumpstart at the snap and instantly diagnose a play. His celebrated club move was the bane of almost every offensive right tackle in the league. The reason being: He'd catch them lunging, come up from underneath with his arm and use leverage against leverage to toss them aside.
"I can't think back how many times over the years he just sent tackles catawampus," said Hanifan.
Big plays were another White hallmark, and his coming-out party with the Packers was a prime example. Against Denver, on Oct. 10, 1993, with the Packers facing future Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway, the ball at their 43-yard line and in danger of blowing a 30-7 halftime lead, White registered back-to-back sacks in the final two minutes to preserve a 30-27 victory.
It was those two sacks that also prompted the chant, "Reggie, Reggie, Reggie," that would echo across Lambeau Field throughout White's six-year stay in Green Bay.
White could be immovable at the point of attack but also chase plays down 20 yards up-field. He could split a double-team and also slam down a blocker attempting a cut-block. He had a remarkable burst off the line for someone his size but seldom played out of control. As a pass rusher, he had the quickness to beat tackles to the outside, the power to drive them back on their heels, and the moves and leverage to knock them off balance.
But maybe more than anything, his mindset was aways in the right place.
"He had great skill, no question about it," Fritz Shurmur, Packers defensive coordinator from 1994-98, said after his and White's final season in Green Bay. "He was endowed with as much physical skill as I've seen in a defensive lineman. But the thing that made him special was he had a great commitment to go with it. He was always willing to think in terms of we and us and the team as opposed to I or me."
White played in 95 regular-season games for the Packers and started 92. He also played in 14 postseason games and registered another eight sacks.
His No. 92 was retired in a ceremony at Lambeau Field on Sept. 18, 2005, less than 10 months after his shocking death at age 43 from an arrhythmia with sleep apnea likely being a contributing factor.
Before coming to the Packers, White played two seasons with the Memphis Showboats of the United States Football League and eight with the Philadelphia Eagles. After retiring from the Packers and sitting out the 1999 season, White played with the Carolina Panthers in 2000. He finished his NFL career with 198 sacks.
Born Dec. 19, 1961. Given name Reginald Howard White. Died Dec. 26, 2004, at age 43.
–Cliff Christl