Jim Flanigan, who played on the Green Bay Packers' Super Bowl II champions, died unexpectedly Friday, Dec. 26, 2025, in Iron River, Mich. Flanigan was 80.
Selected in the second round of the 1967 NFL Draft, Flanigan appeared in 12 regular-season games, plus three postseason games as a rookie, including the Ice Bowl and Super Bowl II.
The Packers drafted Flanigan, who played college ball at Pittsburgh, with the hope he'd be the heir apparent to Ray Nitschke at middle linebacker. At the Super Bowl in Miami, Vince Lombardi boasted that the Packers had enough young talent to maintain their dynasty, and Flanigan was among those young players who represented the team's future.
"There are 17 or 18 players on this team, who will make anything the Packers did before pale by comparison," Lombardi predicted. "You will see a great team coming out of Green Bay in the next two or three years. A very great team."
However, Lombardi resigned as coach following the Super Bowl, his fifth NFL championship team in seven years, and things didn't work out that way.
Flanigan appeared in 40 games over four seasons with the Packers, although he suffered a broken arm and missed 10 games in 1969. A year later, the Packers chose to cut him after the 11th game with the notation that he was injured – rather than place him on injured reserve – and New Orleans claimed him on waivers. Flanigan needed knee surgery and didn't play for the Saints over the final three games, but then started 12 of 14 games for them at middle linebacker in 1971, his final NFL season.
The Saints traded Flanigan to New England in June 1972, where he impressed head coach John Mazur in an early scrimmage, prompting him to say, "If (Flanigan) keeps hitting people as he did today, he'll play a lot of football around here." However, the Patriots wound up waiving Flanigan as injured before the start of the season.
Flanigan settled in the Sturgeon Bay area, part of Wisconsin's Door County, following his football career.
Born James Michael Flanigan Jr., he was the father of James Michael Flanigan III, who played defensive tackle in the NFL for 10 years, including seven with the Chicago Bears and one with the Packers in 2001. Another son, Brian, played at Wisconsin.
A grandson, James Flanigan, was an all-state player this past season on Green Bay Notre Dame's WIAA Division 2 state runner-up team and is committed to play at the University of Notre Dame next season. Richie Flanigan, another grandson, was a junior on Green Bay Notre Dame's team last fall.
