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Terrell Buckley is among the notable Packers who won titles elsewhere in recent decades.
Last Friday, we took a look at all of the mercenaries that the Green Bay Packers assembled to help them win Super Bowl XXXI after the 1996 season. That team had a number of players who had long careers elsewhere around the NFL, but who won their first (and in many cases, only) ring in Green Bay on that team.
Today, we will be looking at players who spent fairly lengthy or noteworthy careers in Green Bay but who went on to win “Hidden Rings” as members of other franchises. Aaron Schatz, founder of Football Outsiders and frequent ESPN contributor, coined this term in a 2017 piece that provided a mention of arguably the first and best Packer to win such a ring.
That player whom Schatz discussed in his piece is Forrest Gregg. The Packers’ legendary right tackle won five NFL titles in Green Bay, including the first two Super Bowls, but he closed out his career by playing one year for the Cowboys as a backup lineman. That year was 1971, when Dallas won its first Super Bowl by beating the Dolphins.
In more recent times, however, the Packers have had several notable players who left Green Bay and surprisingly ended up earning Super Bowl rings in other places. Oddly, most of them were defensive backs, as we’ll see momentarily.
A stalwart pass-rushing outside linebacker on the late-1980s Packers defenses, Harris totaled 55 sacks in five seasons as a Packer. The 4th-round pick was a first-team All-Pro in 1989 when he set the team’s official single-season sack record with a whopping 19.5.
However, Harris held out early in 1991, a period that saw him miss five games and that reportedly involved a drug investigation. The Packers then traded Harris to the 49ers in late September, and he played two seasons in San Francisco then left for Philadelphia as a free agent in 1993. Harris was injured and played sparingly that season, but the 49ers brought him back in late 1994 en route to a Super Bowl title. Harris had a huge playoff run with 4.5 sacks in three postseason games, then came back for one more go in San Francisco in 1995 before retiring.
The Packers’ much-maligned first-round pick in 1992, Buckley lasted three years with the Packers before Ron Wolf traded him to the Miami Dolphins for what was described as “past considerations.” He was unofficially part of the trade that sent Hidden Ring winner Keith Jackson to Green Bay, and the fact that he busted in Green Bay is part of what drove Ron Wolf to establish the size thresholds that the Packers have stuck to at cornerback over the last 30 years.
However, Buckley had a long career, retiring after the 2005 season. He played better with the Dolphins than he did in Green Bay, then had short stints with the Broncos, Patriots,...
