This season marks the 100th anniversary of the Green Bay Packers. Founded in 1919, the franchise—which was originally independent—officially joined the National Football League way back in 1921. Over the course of the team’s century-long existence, thousands of players have donned a Packers uniform. No matter how long, historic, and storied a team and its player might be, there are just 99 jersey numbers to pick from.
In honor of the 100th anniversary (and because we don’t have many compelling things to say about this weekend’s match-up with the Denver Broncos), we figured it was high time to comb through the extensive team archives and boldly declare THE BEST PACKERS PLAYER to wear each of the 99 uniform options. Some numbers—like number 1, for example—were only worn by one player. Other numbers have been worn by numerous Green Bay greats (we’re looking at you, number 80). A few players even wore a Packers jersey in a back-up capacity before finding success with another team. It’s also worth mentioning that Johnny “Blood” McNally had like five different numbers during his time with the Packers.
Regardless of how many players wore specific jersey numbers or how good there might’ve been, there can only be one player from the team’s 100-year history to be the best to have ever worn it. After loads of research and hours of internal debate, here’s our list of the best Packers player to wear each and every jersey number. For the sake of argument (and, in some cases, to show you just how dire the choices were for a few numerals), we’ve also added a runner-up in parenthesis when applicable. Let the heated debates begin!
1 — Curly Lambeau
2 — Mason Crosby (Charlie Mathys)
3 — Tony Canadeo (Ben Agajanian)
4 — Brett Favre (Herm Schneidman)
5 — Paul Hornung
6 — JK Scott (Graham Harrell)
7 — Don Majkowski (Bud Svendsen)
8 — Ryan Longwell (Mark Brunell)
9 — Whitey Wooden (Jug Earp)
10 — Jan Stenerud (Lynn Dickey, wore 10 from 1976-79 before switching to 12)
11 — Matt Hasselbeck (David Beverly)
12 — Aaron Rodgers (Lynn Dickey)
13 — Chris Jacke (Chester Marcol)
14 — Don Hutson (Johnny “Blood” McNally)
15 — Bart Starr (Babe Parilli)
16 — Lou Brock (Craig Nall and a bunch of other crappy quarterbacks)
17 — Davante Adams (David Whitehurst)
18 — Randall Cobb (Mike Tomczak)
19 — Carl Mulleneaux (Equanimeous St. Brown)
20 — Atari Bigby (Allen Rossum)
21 — Charles Woodson (Bob Jeter)
22 — Lavvie Dilweg (Elijah Pitts)
23 — Travis Wilson (Maurice Harvey)
24 — Willie Wood (Johnnie Gray)
25 — Dorsey Levens (Ryan Grant)
26 — Herb Adderley (Arnie Herber)
27 — Clarke Hinkle (Terrell Buckley)
28 — Willie Buchanon (Ahmad Carroll)
29 — Charley Brock (Al Matthews)
30 — Ahman Green (William Henderson and John Kuhn)
31 — Jim Taylor (Al Harris)
32 — Brandon Jackson (Cedric Benson)
33 — Doug Evans (William Henderson, Ray Nitschke in 1958)
34 — Edgar Bennett (Ahman Green)
35 — Samkon Gado (Michael Haddix)
36 — LeRoy Butler (Nick Collins)
37 — Tyrone Williams (Sam Shields and Mark Murphy)
38 — Arnie Herber (Tramon Williams)
39 — Clark Hinkle (Mike Prior)
40 — Eddie Lee Ivery (Tom Brown)
41 — Eugene Robinson (Tom Flynn)
42 — John Brockington (Morgan Burnett)
43 — Doug Hart (M.D. Jennings)
44 — Donny Anderson (James Starks and Najeh Davenport)
45 — Perry Smith (Emlen Tunnell)
46 — Hank Gremminger (Vince Workman)
47 — Jesse Whittenton (Jake Ryan)
48 — Ken Ellis (Joe Thomas)
49 — Rob Francois (Ed West)
50 — A.J. Hawk (Johnny Holland)
51 — Jim Ringo (Brian Williams)
52 — Clay Matthews (Frank Winters)
53 — George Koonce (Fred Carr)
54 — Larry McCarren (Nate Wayne)
55 — Bernardo Harris (Johnny “Blood” McNally)
56 — Nick Barnett (Julius Peppers)
57 — Ken Bowman (Rich Moran)
58 — Dan Currie (Mike Flanagan)
59 — John Anderson (Wayne Simmons)
60 — Rob Davis (Lee Roy Caffey)
61 — Jerry Boyarsky (Brett Goode)
62 — Marco Rivera (Bill Lueck)
63 — Fuzzy Thurston (Scott Wells)
64 — Jerry Kramer (John Jurkovic)
65 — Mark Tauscher (Ron Hallstrom)
66 — Ray Nitschke (Paul Rudzinski)
67 — Karl Swanke (Don Barclay)
68 — Mike Wahle (Gale Gillingham)
69 — David Bakhtiari (Tiny Engebretsen)
70 — T.J. Lang (Keith Uecker)
71 — Santana Dotson (Josh Sitton)
72 — Earl Dotson (Dick Himes)
73 — Daryn Colledge (Aaron Taylor)
74 — Henry Jordan (Aaron Kampman)
75 — Forrest Gregg (Ken Ruettgers)
76 — Chad Clifton (Bob Skoronski)
77 — Cullen Jenkins (Ron Kostelnik)
78 — Robert Brown (Ross Verba)
79 — Ryan Pickett (Dave Hanner)
80 — Donald Driver (James Lofton)
81 — Desmond Howard (Marv Flemming)
82 — Paul Coffman (Don Beebe)
83 — Sweeny Williams (John Jefferson)
84 — Sterling Sharpe (Carroll Dale)
85 — Max McGee (Greg Jennings)
86 — Antonio Freeman (Boyd Dowler)
87 — Willie Davis (Jordy Nelson)
88 — Ron Kramer (Bubba Franks)
89 — Dave Robinson (Mark Chmura)
90 — Ezra Johnson (B.J. Raji)
91 — Brian Noble (Jayrone Elliott)
92 — Reggie White (John Jurkovic)
93 — Gilbert Brown (Robert Brown)
94 — Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila (Dean Lowry)
95 — Bryce Paup (Keith McKenzie)
96 — Sean Jones (Mike Neal)
97 — Tim Harris (Cletidus Hunt)
98 — Gabe Wilkins (Letroy Guion)
99 — Charles Johnson (Corey Williams)