Robert from Saginaw, MI
On the Lambeau Field façade, the name Johnny "Blood" McNally is listed. To be accurate do you think the Packers should change it to Johnny Blood?
Yes. That was the name he played under throughout his time with the Packers. Our press books, programs, what have you from back then all listed him as Johnny Blood. The Green Bay Press-Gazette also referred to him as Johnny Blood in its game stories and anything else related to his life as a professional football player.
"Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League," which carried a subtitle "The First Official Statistical Register of Every NFL Player," listed him as Johnny Blood under the Bs in that register.
Blood himself told the New York Times in 1936, his last season as a Packers player, that Blood alone was his professional name. "I've seen it written that my real name is John Blood McNally and I just dropped the last part for football purposes, but that isn't so," he said. "I was just John McNally until I decided to be Johnny Blood carrying a football."
When the Pro Football Hall of Fame elected Blood as a charter member in 1963, Art Daley of the Green Bay Press-Gazette referred to him only as Johnny Blood in his lead story. The headline over it read: "Lambeau, Hutson, Blood, Hubbard in 'Hall'".
Daley was the Green Bay representative on the selection committee from 1963-1998. He covered the Packers on a near-daily basis as sports editor of the Press-Gazette for 21 years, and also co-founded the Green Bay Packers Yearbook and continued writing about them for close to 70 years in all.
Nobody on the hall's selection committee at the time or anyone in Canton would have had as much insight into the name as Daley, whose attention to detail as a reporter never ceases to amaze me when I read his long-ago stories.
But for whatever reason, the people in Canton concocted the ridiculous name that they still use today: Johnny "Blood" McNally. As I wrote in my book, "The Greatest Story in Sports: Green Bay Packers 1919-2019," the name made no more sense than someone coming up with the combined name of "Monroe" Mortenson for Marilyn Monroe.
Johnny Blood was a magical name not only in Packers history but throughout the NFL during his playing days in the 1920 and '30s. It captivated big-city writers, and the ink it was given on their sports pages no doubt contributed to Green Bay's survival as an NFL franchise.
I can't imagine that the name Johnny Blood and the notoriety associated with it didn't lure fans to the Polo Grounds in New York, Wrigley Field in Chicago and other stadiums across the league putting money in both the Packers' and their opponents' tills.
Here's just one endearing story that made headlines from Pittsburgh to San Francisco, and from Bristol, Tenn., to Billings, Mont., when newspapers all but ignored pro football during its offseason.
After the Packers lost their season finale to the Chicago Bears on Dec. 10, 1933, Curly Lambeau and his players agreed to play the independent St. Louis Gunners the following Sunday at David Ranken Jr. Public Schools Stadium in St. Louis. The game was widely promoted in the St. Louis papers and drew a city-record crowd of 15,080 with some of the proceeds providing food for the needy during the Great Depression.
The Packers won 21-0 with Blood scoring on a 35-yard touchdown pass. He made such a hit that the Gunners then signed him to play against the Bears in another postseason exhibition game the following Sunday. The Bears were coming off a 23-21 victory over the New York Giants in the first NFL Championship Game.
With Blood playing a key role, the Gunners outrushed the Bears, 222 yards to 116, and held a 16-to-8 edge in first downs in what ended up a scoreless tie.
That night, or shortly after midnight, Yellow Cab driver Joseph O'Connor called police and reported his taxi had been stolen while he was inside the city's railroad station. Blood later said he went to Union Station to say goodbye to some of the Bears' players.
Fifteen minutes after receiving the call from O'Connor, two policemen stopped Blood and arrested him along with his passenger, 24-year-old Miss Dorcas Cochran, a nightclub entertainer. Blood told police he had driven a cab during his college days and a flashback was what impelled him to take the wheel. "We hopped in and I drove the old bus away," he said.
Blood furnished bond of $1,000 so he and his acquaintance didn't have to spend the night in jail, and the cab company decided not to press charges.
But change the name in the story from Johnny Blood to Johnny "Blood" McNally and what happens? It loses some, if not most, of its luster, just like it does today when ill-informed writers copy the Hall of Fame's gobbledygook.
It robs the Packers of a rich nugget of their history.
Joan Malcheski, our director of brand strategy and marketing, grasps the fame that Johnny Blood brought to the Packers and has used that name exclusively in displays around our renovated Lambeau Field offices. And together we recently approached President Mark Murphy about changing the name on the stadium façade.
In the past, he was reluctant to do so as long as the Hall of Fame continued using the name "Blood" McNally, and I understood his reasoning.
But when the Packers recently named Bill Jartz to their board of directors, Mark wisely and logically decided to list him by that name. But Jartz, who is retiring this week as WBAY's news anchor, was Bill Schmidt, his given name, when he was a standout lineman on the football team at Clintonville High School.
Bill "Jartz" Schmidt would be as absurd as Johnny "Blood" McNally, and the parallels between the two are exactly alike.
No Packers president has done more to preserve and glorify our history than Mark. I hope fans appreciate that as being a big part of his legacy. So Joan and I have our fingers crossed.
Landon from Madison
Do you know of any Green Bay Packers' records or statistics that will be affected by the decision to now include AAFC stats in the NFL Record Book?
Yes, one of the Packers' most cherished records will be erased: "Most Consecutive Seasons League Champion." That category was added to the "Team Records" section in the NFL's 1965 Record Manual, and credited to the 1929-31, three-time champion Packers. The league's 1968 Record Manual credited the 1965-67 three-time NFL champion Packers with tying the record.
As of the 2024 Official National Football League Record & Fact Book that line hadn't changed for 57 years. As of last season, the record set by the 1931 Packers hadn't been broken over 93 seasons.
But it will now be replaced in the 2025 edition of the Record & Fact Book, following the recent decision by NFL owners to recognize records and stats from the All-America Football Conference, which existed for four seasons from 1946-49.
The new record will read:
Most Consecutive Seasons League Champion
5 Cle. Browns 1946-49 AAFC, 1950 NFL
Why now, 76 years after the AAFC played its last game?
Here's the history behind the NFL's original decision not to recognize AAFC records.
On Dec. 9, 1949, NFL Commissioner Bert Bell announced the 10 teams in his league had reached a merger agreement with the AAFC, forming a new 13-team league to be renamed the National-American Football League. Of the seven AAFC teams in existence at the end, Bell revealed that only the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers would be included in the merger.
At the end of the first joint meeting between the leagues in late January 1950, Bell said he wasn't inclined to include AAFC stats or records in what would be a newly created NAFL record book but that he hadn't yet reached a final decision.
On March 3, 1950, Bell with the support of owners reversed course and announced the revamped 13-team league would be called the National Football League and include two conferences: American and National. He said the decision was reached upon advice of his counsel.
In essence, Bell's backtracking was an admission that the NFL hadn't merged with the AAFC but had "merely gobbled up" three of its teams as the Associated Press reported following the announcement. Accordingly, Bell declared the 1950 season would be the NFL's 31st, and, at some point around that time, decreed that records and stats for AAFC players and coaches would not be included in the NFL record book.
Thus, Cleveland coach Paul Brown, who compiled a 47-4-3 record in AAFC regular-season games, was never credited with those victories in the NFL record book. Likewise, Browns quarterback Otto Graham's 10,085 passing yards and 86 touchdown passes in the AAFC were not included in his career stat line.
Fast forward 20 years to when the 16-team NFL and 10-team AFL completed their merger, stats and records from both leagues were included in a revised NFL record book. Although at first there was talk of excluding AFL numbers, the decision to include them stirred little controversy.
The biggest storyline at the time was Cleveland great Jim Brown losing his single-game rushing record of 237 yards to Buffalo fullback Cookie Gilchrist's 243 yards.
In all likelihood, the inclusion of AAFC stats and records in the 2025 NFL Record & Fact Book isn't likely to create an uproar, either. In fact, I have no quarrel with crediting any coach or player for his AAFC accomplishments.
But, in my mind, team records should have fallen into a different category. And if listed at all, listed separately.
The Packers' threepeats are the NFL record. The Browns' four titles from 1946-49 were an AAFC record. They weren't viewed as being equivalent in 1949 and nothing has occurred since to change things.
The decision to exclude AAFC records in the first place wasn't finalized until after the NFL fessed up that the leagues didn't merge – that the NFL simply accomplished what had been its mission for at least a year and that was to absorb the successful Cleveland and San Francisco franchises and, otherwise, strip the AAFC of its identity.
My suspicion is that Baltimore was included in the merger for one reason only.
It was home to lawyer John Henry Lewin, who had served for more than a decade as a special assistant to the U.S. attorney general and was regarded as one of the country's leading authorities on antitrust legislation. Lewin had advised the Colts that if they were in accord with the league constitution and had the money to continue operating, they couldn't be forced out of business.
Like most of the AAFC teams, the Colts didn't belong in the NFL and that was proven within a year, when owner Fred Wattner withdrew his franchise. Two years later when the Colts were reborn, they inherited the roster of the year-old and already displaced Dallas Texans.
Clearly, Cleveland winning four straight championships in what was an eight-team league of expansion franchises in 1946 and a seven-team league with no divisions in 1949 hardly compares to Green Bay's two threepeats.
Vince Lombardi's 1965-67 champs won in a 46-year-old, 14-team league with two divisions of seven in 1965 and for a third time in a 16-team league with three postseason games, counting the Super Bowl, in 1967.
Even Curly Lambeau's 1929-31 champs won against opponents ranging in number from 12 to 10 and in a league that was in its 12th season by 1931.
Cleveland, as it proved in 1950, was the best team in pro football when it was welcomed into the NFL. But even the 49ers could win only three of 12 games in their first NFL season after going 9-3 and finishing second to the Browns in the AAFC in 1949.
The 1950 NFL Colts finished 1-11 and were outscored 462-213, after going 1-11 and being outscored 341-172 in their final AAFC season.
As Michael MacCambridge aptly put it in his book, "America's Game," lack of competition was what destroyed the AAFC. He noted even the Browns' own fans "were growing bored" over their "persistent excellence," and the team was suffering at the gate as a result. He cited numbers, showing that the Browns' home attendance had plummeted from an average of 48,556 in 1946 to 31,600 in 1949, despite no fall-off in their level of play.
Bottom line: There were ways to incorporate AAFC records and stats without erasing long-established and well-earned NFL records. A simple asterisk and explanation, noting that the Browns had won four straight AAFC titles and a fifth in the NFL in 1950 under Green Bay's record three would have done the trick.
Rich from Green Bay
It's always said that the Bears are the Packers' oldest rival, but they played the Chicago Cardinals the week before they first played the Bears in 1920. Wouldn't that make the Cardinals their oldest rival?
Good question. I've tried – maybe not always successfully – to take into account the semantics involved here.
Packers-Cardinals would be the oldest matchup, but it has hardly been a rivalry since the Cardinals were moved from the NFL Western Division in 1950 to the American Conference – or soon to be renamed Eastern Conference. As a result, the Packers faced the Chicago Cardinals 51 times from 1921-56; the St. Louis Cardinals, 12 times from 1962-85; the Phoenix Cardinals, twice, 1988 and '90; and the Arizona Cardinals,11 times, including twice in the postseason, since 1999.
There's also the issue of the missed Packers-Chicago Bears games in the strike-shortened 1982 season, which means the "oldest continuous" rivalry doesn't work either. The Bears have faced the Lions every year since 1930, including the four years from 1930-33 when they were the Portsmouth Spartans.
Actually, the Lions also qualify as the Packers' longest continuous rival, dating to 1932. Like the Bears, the Packers faced Portsmouth twice in 1930. Unlike the Bears, the Packers and Portsmouth didn't meet in 1931.
In summary, I've generally referred to Packers-Bears as pro football's most storied rivalry. I think "oldest and sustained" also would be accurate.
