Acme Packing Company
You’re about to witness some of the rarest Packers football there is.
In the glorious century since Curly Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun brought the Packers into existence, the Packers have played just 32 Saturday games.
That’s fourth most among days of the week. Sundays, obviously, are the most common games for Packers football. Counting playoff games, the Packers have played 1,339 games on Sundays. Next most is Mondays, where the Packers have played 78 games. Thursdays are the next most common gameday with 61 Packers appearances, then Saturday with the aforementioned 32.
And since you’re wondering, the Packers have played four games on Fridays (most recently in 2004), and one single, solitary game on a Wednesday. There has never been a Packers’ regular season or playoff game on a Tuesday. Sounds like a growth opportunity for the NFL (please no).
But we’re here for Saturday football. Here’s a brief history of the Packers’ fourth-most-common gameday.
The Packers most recently played a Saturday game in 2021, hanging on to beat the Cleveland Browns 24-22 on Christmas Day thanks in large part to Baker Mayfield’s four interceptions. Rasul Douglas put the final nail in the coffin, picking Mayfield off at midfield with under a minute to go.
The Packers played their first Saturday game almost exactly 100 years ago. On November 28, 1925, the Packers fell to the now defunct Frankford Yellow Jackets in Philadelphia by a score of 13-7. Frankford would win the NFL title in the 1926 season, but would be out of business by the early 1930s.
That was the only time the Packers ever played the Yellow Jackets on a Saturday, and they’ve only ever played the Bears once on a Saturday, too. That game happened back in 1964. On a chilly December day at Wrigley Field, the Packers throttled the Bears 17-3 thanks to a characteristically hard-charging day from Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung, who combined for 130 yards and two touchdowns on 31 carries.
Of course, a good number of Saturday games have come in the playoffs, including the Packers’ biggest Saturday win.
The biggest win came in 1982 (the game technically took place in 1983, but it was part of the 1982 season), and also happened to be the Packers’ only playoff win under Bart Starr. That it came in a strike-shortened year where the Packers barely squeaked into the playoffs with a 5-3-1 record shouldn’t take away from the fact that they put a beating on the Cardinals that day. Lynn Dickey went a sparkling 17 of 23 passing for 260 yards and four touchdown in a rout that wasn’t even as close as the 41-16 final score would lead you to believe.
The Packers’ worst loss didn’t come in the playoffs, but it did put them out of their misery. Sort of. The Packers capped off their 1986 season by running into the buzzsaw that was the ‘86 Giants. New York was battling the Chicago Bears for seeding (both teams finished the...
