Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
For more than a century, the Green Bay Packers have
been a benchmark for football excellence. Thousands of players have
helped pave the way, and we're here to tell you
their stories. I'm Wayne Laravie. This is the Packers alumni
Spot White.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Here's a trivia question for you.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Who is the last wide receiver selected by the Packers
in the first round of the NFL Draft. The answer
with the twentieth pick of the two thousand and two
NFL Draft, Javon Walker.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
It's exciting, I mean to know, to know that I
was this great organization's last first round pick. It kind
of goes down in history every year the draft comes around.
So it feels good to stay relevant a little bit.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Keeps your name in the news.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Does sure does stay relevant a lot when it comes
to the Packers.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Mike Sherman was your head coach and the GM at
the time when you were drafted. Brett Farba quarterback, Donald
Driver coming into his prime, Bubba Franks at tight end,
Amon Green rushing for record setting yards.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
That was a heck of an offense you guys had, right.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yes, it was, and still to this day, I think
I still put this offense up against any of the
offenses through the years of the Green Bay Packers. So
we had a solid team.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
And that line I want to say Clifton and Tausher
left and right tackles, Mike Wall left guard. I want
to say, Marco rivera right guard and Flannagan in the middle.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Whow mean group? Right? They look at it, that Wall
Man Wall.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
When I look back, that ball head, the Beard. That
was a solid group.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
It was a solid group in front of you.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yes, sir, first year you caught forty one balls seven
hundred and sixteen yards but nine touchdowns. You played in
several key games of Packers history. But I want to
take you back to that game in Oakland. Okay, it
was a Monday night game. Remember Brett Fire's dad had
passed away, very emotional. I remember it was a gray
dark day and then evening in Oakland.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
But you guys put on a shoe.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
I mean it was forty one to seven victory over
the Raiders in Oakland. Tell me take me back to
that night and was it kind of surreal because the
catches you guys were making and the plays you were
making were unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
You know what, Going back to that night, we knew
that it was a lot going on between you know,
Brett fav and his family. But I can also remember,
and to this day, Stan Drayton, who is now the
Temple University's football coach, he sat down with me and
for some reason, I don't know why, but it registered
(02:35):
what he told me that night, and it was just like,
you're going to have a breakout game. It was some
something simple like that, but it was just something that
registered with me. And look at the performance we had
that night, so it was great to.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Be a part of.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, and there had to be tremendous emotion running through
the team, right, I mean that was your leader who
was struggling obviously with a personal issue. And did that
inspire you guys that night? Do you think it did
a little bit?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I guess, because you know, once the game starts, it's
a football game. So we just knew we wanted to
make every play and every catch as far as to
help the team win.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
But yeah, and you guys are struggling to get back
to the playoffs, yes, sir, and you know that team
came down a few weeks later. You came down to
a situation where you're playing the Broncos, wrapping up the
regular season a Lambeufield to remember this, yes, sir, and
you guys are winning big because the Broncos had clinched
the AFC and they were resting their guys. But you
guys are winning bag all right. You guys have to
(03:30):
win and the Vikings have to lose to the lowly
Arizona part cars.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Remember that.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
So here we are wrapping up the game in Green
Bay and all of a sudden, it's like forty one
to seven or something that you guys were winning, and
all of a sudden there are these you can hear
these cheers in the crowd and everything no reason to cheer,
whatever was going on in the field, there's nothing happening.
But it was it a surreal atmosphere that the crowd
was reacting to a game thousands of miles away that
(03:58):
was going to have a direct impact on your season.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Continued or not, Yes, sir, you know what, You appreciate
it more now when you're watching football and how close
these races are because it can come down to a
single play, the last drive. And the reason I can,
you know, bring that up, is because I always think
back to that game, last game of the season until
a final play and then we're in. So that's what
(04:22):
makes fun watching football games this year.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, you know, playoff win in overtime over the Seahawks,
and then you guys went to Philadelphia. You guys really
felt like you had to feel like a team of destiny,
didn't you, because that season was winding down.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
We were hot.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Nobody wanted to play us that year, and I can
remember saying, if you were going to run into the Packers,
we were hitting a hot streak at the right time,
and then we hit that bumping the road in Philly.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Tell me about now.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
A couple of things about that game that are interesting
in that there was a you guys are beating them
up pretty good. In the end of the first half,
there was a fourth and one on the goal line
and you guys didn't get it, and there was apparently
an impassioned plea in the locker room or a declaration
by head coach Mike Sherman that hey, if we face
fourth and one again, we're going to we're going for
(05:11):
it and we're going to ride your butts all the
way to the Super Bowl, pointing at the offensive line.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
And then there was a fourth and one.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
In the fourth quarter in Philadelphia territory with a chance
to kind of solve the game away. And you were
on the field, and you know, tell me about that moment.
You guys came up to the line of scrimmage, you
try to decoy them to jump off sides. They were
so tired and beaten, as Bob McGinn said, they couldn't move.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
They couldn't they wouldn't jump off sides. They didn't have
the energy to do so.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
And you had Amhan green as eighteen hundred rushing yards
and Sherman decides, we're going to decoy them and if
they don't jump, we're going to call a time out
and punt.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
What were your thoughts at that time.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Doing what coach says at the time, you know, obviously
being a young receiver, knowing the situational football, you just
kind of go with best and hopefully let our defense
pull us out of that predicament. Wish they did, because
you know we had them. Who would have thought who
would get a fourth in right, So you know, there
you go again, football down to the last minute. So
(06:12):
at the time, it was a it was a great
decision because you know, you want your defense to play
that out and obviously on their d the miracle that.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
They had well and Jaywalker that didn't end the game,
and by the way, that only sustained that drive that
got him a field goal the game. Now we're in overtime,
the Packers that believe won the toss and Brett is
out there and he threw a pass down field that
Dawkins intercepted. And I don't know about you, but I
(06:44):
flashed back to the Monday night game in Oakland almost
a month earlier. It was one of those balls. Excepting
in Oakland in that Monday night game, somebody from the Packers,
you or Drivers, Ferguson or somebody came down with that pass.
That ball he threw up there a moonball, and instead
of Driver or one of you guys coming down with it,
it was Dawkins, the safety for Philadelphia, And that was
(07:06):
the turning point of the game.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, that plass was to me actually, and I didn't
even know. It was a miscommunication with routes. So obviously
with the Philadelphia egos, if you go back to that play,
they were running in all out blitz, So that's why
he just went back and threw it up when they
were running it all out blitz. I was running a slant.
So if you really look at the film, when they blitzed,
(07:30):
everybody came.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Safety is in all.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
So when I run the slant, if he throws the slant,
I go all the way up the sideline. But it
was such a fast just miscommunication and it was just
a rare back and throw it up.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
He threw the out and you were slanting. He threw
the go. The guy was slanning.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, and that's why Brian Dawkins was just back there
because he was the only safety rolling over the top
of me.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Wow, that's why it was back there. Oh man.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So just the miscommunication on the site adjustment.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Did the team ever recover from that game?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
A man? I can't say.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
You know, I still look back at that game because
we were just so close, you know, and that would
have been the team that if if we would have
went through Philly, you know, tell them what could happen
that year.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
In two thousand and four, the Packers and their vaunted rivals,
the Vikings, played in a de facto NFC North Division
championship game on Christmas Eve in Minneapolis. The Vikings with
Randy Moss and Dante Culpepper, in their prime against Brett Farr,
Donald Driver and Javon Walker, who led the pack and
(08:40):
receiving that season, scoring twelve touchdowns.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
On the year.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
They reminded me of what we just previously talked about
with Philadelphia Eagles. We were driving and they were out
on the blitz. We ran a sight adjust where I
ran a slint, He threw the slint, I caught it,
peeled around up the sideline, and obviously that's when we
kicked the field goal and win.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
But that was that was a real.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Tough game, and Minnesota was a tough team at the time,
so we knew we were built for something that year.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Moving forward, Yeah, you had to feel pretty good. I mean,
Mike Sherman after that game told me that was a
program win.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I mean two weeks later you get the Vikings again
in lambeau Field. Now, Mike Tys, to coach the Vikings
at the time, said, you know, because they lost the
following week, they didn't recover from that game. They lost
the following week to Washington back end of the playoffs,
and Mike Tys said, the only team that year in
the playoffs that we could have beaten, that we could
(09:36):
have gotten up enough to beat with.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
The Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
You guys had won two games over them, thirty four
to thirty one here and out there. What was your
thought when you got the Viking? Was it like, oh
my god, we got these guys again.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
You not want to play them a third time? And
that's because you know, everybody knows you played three times
something third strike. So it wasn't like playing them as
you know, we some type of fear or anything. It
was just like, oh man, third time might be their charm,
and they did. They came into Lambeau and spank us.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
In some ways.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Walker felt like a fish out of water in Green
Bay and tried to force his way out of town.
In two thousand and five, he blew out his ACL
in the first game of the season. It was placed
on ir. The Packers traded him to Denver, ranting his wish.
In two thousand and six, talk a little bit about
leaving here. What was your feeling, because you were a star?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yes, sir, it was just kind of like, you know,
I think it was at a time where it really
wasn't done as much as it is now. So when
it does happen and I'm running into friends and other
players from teams. It was like, man, Jay walk what
you did then, now it's like everybody's doing it now,
meaning just wanting a new new scenery and new look.
(10:53):
And obviously you know what happened to happen to a
lot of the.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Great year you wanted to leave. It was your tension
after the two thousand and fourth season to move on.
Is that was that your feeling or was it just
a contracts?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
What was it? Take us back to that.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
It was it was more so me wanting to move
on and with contract, so a lot of a lot
of pieces, and then you know at the time, sometimes
it's kind of hard to rebuild again with the same
with the same people, maybe after they already know what
you want to do, you know, so it'd be hard
for me to come back and play if everybody knows
that I want to leave from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Javon had one big year in Denver in two thousand
and six, but injuries took their toll. He finished up
in Oakland with the Raiders, and by two thousand and
nine he was out of the league. His tenure in
Green Bay was a mere blink of an eye.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
That's what it is. It's life.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
It's giving me the ability to do what I do
now as a leader with my other businesses. You learn
all these traits from the people you're around. You learn
all this from the coaches who teach you. So I mean,
if I was a young kid and I could put
him in a sport in football, I would do it
right away. Could they learn values that'll take with them
forever instead of learning it just trying to do anything.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Today?
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Javon Walker is a successful businessman who owns a number
of apartment complexes and franchise yogurt stores, but he's best
known in these parts as the answer to a trivia
question that seems to come up every year in the
NFL Draft