Packers Alumni Spotlight: Mike Neal

Wayne Larrivee sits down with former Green Bay Packers linebacker Mike Neal to reminisce on bouncing from basketball to football (1:47), learning how to be a pro (5:43), and feeling at home in Green Bay (8:31).

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Episode Transcript

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 Larvey. This is the Packers Alumni Spotlight.

(00:28):
Mike Neil was the fifty six pick of the two
NFL Draft. Not bad for a kid who didn't even
aspire to the NFL. You see, he was a basketball player.
Funny thing is is I hated football. My dad was.
He played nat for the Giants. That was a love

(00:49):
of his life. To be honest with you, was real
committed to it. But I just never I never could
grasp that I didn't like it. I tried out for
Pop Warner actually played got hit one time. Like I'm over,
I'm done. My Dad's like, nope. The one thing you
won't do is quit. You know you signed up for it,
Finish it, said okay, So I finished it, um, And

(01:09):
I was like when I was like ten years old
and never played again into high school. You like basketball, right? Absolutely? Indiana?
I mean even Gary, Indiana. There's a basketball hoop on
every garage, isn't there? Yep? I mean. Now, the most
famous person we knew growing up was a big dog.
Glenn Robinson played for a long time. So basketball is
just that thing in Indiana. You know, we grew up

(01:31):
playing that. So tell me a story about how a
friend of yours got you. You're in high school, you're
not gonna play football and a friend of yours kind
of talked you into it or did you just grow
back into the game or what happened. So my freshman year,
my friends like, man, come on, might trial for the
football team. I'm like, nah, I'm good man, I don't.

(01:51):
I don't want to do that. I'm focused on basketball.
So I was like, you know what, I come out
to training camp. So I came out to training camp
and I wrote the edge and I did not like that.
Ironically enough, that same frame gets hurt. I have to play.
I was terrible. And it happened again my sophomore year.
He's like, come out and play like, na, I just
don't think this for me. Show up after training camp,

(02:14):
and that's when they kind of all came together. I
realized that, you know, I was a competitor. I did
not like being able to play um. And then I
actually got an opportunity to play on varsity and the
rest of history after that. So you you eventually gained
a love for the game, and your your future was
more football. If you were to play sports for a living,

(02:36):
we're gonna make it basketball, You're gonna make it football. Right. Yeah, Well,
that same year, a lot of realizations happened. I knew
going into my junior year, I wasn't gonna get too
much taller than what I was, Uh six three, I'm like,
I'll be a point guard in the NBA. Not gonna happen. Um.
My high school, unfortunately, didn't really condone two sport athletes.
So I had a decision to make. It was either

(02:56):
basketball and football, and I didn't get along with the
basketball coach, so I chose football. And you know, for
me at that time, it was just the opportunity to
compete and being a competitor. Uh, that's just the only
thing I really cared about. It wasn't even necessarily football.
It was just that I wanted the opportunity to compete.
And then after that year is when the love started. Yeah,

(03:18):
you know, and to play football at the level major
college and you went you wanted to go to Notre Dame,
but end up going to Purdue. But to play at
that level, you kind of have to love the game,
don't you. I mean absolutely everything I mean, and and
it doesn't just start on the field. Is what people
really don't realize. It starts with waking up, going to
the way room, starts with film study, being a student

(03:40):
of the game and understanding responsibilities and then putting it
all together and putting it on the field. And me
being a student at anything is what I love the most.
I love to learn, so that grew naturally with me
with football and weightlifting. So you go to Purdue Joe
Tiller basketball on turf. That kind of fits, you know
a little bit for you. But Brock Spots defensive coordinator,

(04:00):
tell us about your predue experience. It was it was
once again rough. When I got in I realized what
you know, I was two hundred and forty pounds, so
can wet. I wanted to be a defensive end. They
saw my dad, He's like three thirty. It's like, no way,
we're gonna make your defensive tackle. And I did not
like that. So it's very hard for me to gain weight. Um,

(04:22):
so my freshman I put on forty pounds. I went
from two forty to two eighty five, got into spring ball,
was a little bit heavier and when it was rough
for me at the beginning, but playing under Joe Teller,
that staff brocks back. Um, the coaches that I had
a defensive tackle, they were able to actually make that
change for me. And then being committed to the weight
room and doing everything that I did. So but it
was it was a great time. I loved it, per Due.

(04:44):
I loved that school. Like so many of his teammates.
Neil watched the Super Bowl run of two thousand tenant
from the injured reserve list after playing in just two games.
That was an experience, Um, and a bitter sweet want
to be honest with you drafted that high. I don't
think that really anybody expected me to get drafted in

(05:07):
the second round. A lot of questions as to why
Green Babe and drafted me, but they saw potential, and
that potential was was not only are you a defensive tackle,
but draft athlete. And we need athletes because we got
big run stoppers, but we need people to be able
to play in the nickel and dime defense. And that's
what they saw in me, and that's what I was
projected to do and and obviously I got hurt that year,
so it was really really tough for me to sit

(05:28):
back and watch it. But you understand a lot from
the vets Um. They give you just a lot of wisdom, encouragement,
and then there was challenging for me, but it formed
everything that I needed to actually get through my seasons
here at Green Bay. Who kind of there's always somebody
who kind of took you or how many different guys
took you under their wing and showed you the ropes

(05:49):
and taught you how to be approach collectively, I can
say just even in the defensive room, Charles Woods and
Clay Matthews, Cullen Jenkins, Ryan Pickett, Um, Nick Collins, it's
just everybody collectively. Nick Bartonette was a big key for
that too, because I hung around Nick a lot my
my rookie year and they just they showed you how

(06:10):
to be a pro if not anything, and when the
chips were stacked against you, how to respond. Obviously with
the injuries too, your role eventually evolved on the team.
Tell us about that and did you feel like you
were able to accomplish what you thought you might be
able to when you enter the pros. I'm still not satisfied.
I'm still mad at my careers over with because I

(06:31):
still don't feel like I accomplished what I wanted to.
But I can tell you to come into the NFL
as a three hundred twelve pound defensive tackle, then to
drop down to two fifty three playout sidelinebacker, rush from
inside of three technique, get a chance of rushing and
rover packages. Mike, I did a lot and I think
that they saw a lot in me, and it gave
me an opportunity to never come off the field, um

(06:54):
and just developing a relationships with the players that I had.
I mean, me and Clay did a lot of things
on defense together where it made him very productive and
it made me productive. So my role grew and you know,
being able to start my last three four years is cool.
I want to ask you about your final game, the
final season two thousand and fifteen in Washington, the wild
card playoff game. Tell me about that day and that

(07:16):
that game. It was emotional. There was a lot of
things that was happening off the field, um that a
lot of people wasn't aware about, and honestly I was,
I was hurt. I had helped that. I had a
surgery on at that point three by a lot of
sports hernias, and it was very very hard for me
to play every single game. And what a lot of
people don't understand was those last years, for the last

(07:38):
ten games, I was a game time decision. It was
very hard for me to get through practice. But um,
I knew that in order to stay in this league
or even to get a contract, I had to play,
and I was a starter and that meant a lot
to me. So coming into that game, you know, I
just had a chip on my shoulder and everything fell
in the right direction. And history shows that every single
time we played Washington, it's my first career stack. Over

(08:01):
the years, every single time we played Washington, I had
a great, great, great game. So that one just fell
in the bucket for me. At two sad game tackles
strip for the strip, uh, you know, fumble recovery. It
was cool. I loved everything about it. You experience in
Green Bay, Um, how do you reflect back on it
now in hindsight, UM, I loved it. Man. I I

(08:23):
grew up in the Northwest region in Indiana. This is very,
very very similar felling to growing up in Indiana. It
felt like home. I mean, this is the only place
I can tell you that you go, you feel that community,
you feel that family oriented thing, and the relationship that
you developed. The people are just uncanny from the way
that they deal with you on and off the field.

(08:44):
You just everywhere you go and people know who you are.
That means a lot. It's like being born into a fraternity.
I was just telling Mike mcgommer is, you know, you
just part of that. That is who you are and
I miss it a lot. So it's it's different being
back in Green Bay for on this side of the ball,
but I enjoy it. But it sounds like you always
are you always are going to be a right. I'm

(09:07):
happy that I got drafted in my career and in
the one spot I can tell you the only thing
I prayed for was my career started and end it
in the same place, and for it to have happened here,
I couldn't be more thankful. Mike was a solid starter
for the better part of three seasons out of six
in Green Bay, a one stop career you'll never forget.