Preseason Kickoff

For those readers new to the rebooted Post Pattern, we have a section called "The Vault". Each season we journey back in time to an earlier NFL season and view that campaign through the lense of the Post Pattern from that year. Normally we share one season's worth of the vintage Post Pattern per current season, but unfortunately our archive only has one issue of the 1982 newsletter (side note...if any of our readers have old copies of the Post Pattern we would LOVE to see them!).

The year that gave us Thriller, Eye of the Tiger, and GI Joe action figures saw the Green Bay Packers coming off just their second non-losing season in the past 10 years. Even though the team started 2-6 in 1981, a 6-2 mark for the second half of the year was enough to earn head coach Bart Starr a contract extension. The Packers selected guard Ron Hallstrom out of Iowa in the first round of the '82 draft. Hallstrom didn't play much his first two years in Green Bay, but by '84 had cracked the starting lineup and went on to start 124 games for the Pack. The only other Packers draft pick from that class to make it at least 10 years in the league was Robert Brown, a DE from Virginia Tech who had 25.5 sacks in his 11 year career with Green Bay. It was drafts like this that contributed to a decade of struggles for the club in the '80s.

Week 1 for the Packers started at Milwaukee County Stadium. The Packers had optimism heading into the season, but that positive feeling quickly left the stadium as the Packers dug themselves a 23-0 hole by halftime. What happened next was something special...

Behind a strong performance by Lynn Dickey, the Packers scored 5 second half touchdowns and the defense held the Rams to only 4 first downs and forced 2 turnovers. The end result? A 35-23 come from behind victory.