What The '96 Packers Look Like Now

Hindsight, says ESPN, is 20/20. What does that have to do with the '96 Green Bay Packers? When it comes to quarterbacks, they don't come much more high-profile than Brett Favre. He's always associated with the Packers, but he wasn't originally drafted by them. He had been drafted by the Falcons in '91 and traded to the Packers in '92 — in exchange for a first-round draft pick — and given the career he went on to have, that seems like a horrible mistake. Hindsight, and all.

Favre ended up being the linchpin of the Packers, including the team that both ESPN and the NFL count among one of the greatest teams in the league's history. They'd come a long way from that day in August of 1919, when the team was first assembled with such haphazardness that there are no real records of what went on that day, or who was involved in the impromptu meeting at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. History does remember, though, that it was two days later that the paper ran the scoop that the Indian Packing Co. would be sponsoring the "Packers," and 77 years later, those Packers waltzed their way to Super Bowl victory.

Where are they today?

When Fansided took a look at Packers players who were the fan favorites, fullback William Henderson was absolutely on the list. His entire 12-year career was spent with the Packers, and still, he told Fox Sports that it was 2007 when he got the tap on the shoulder and the, "It's not you, it's us," speech from higher-ups. He was fine with retiring, but his post-retirement plans didn't go as, well, planned.

Henderson had been a pre-med student at the University of North Carolina, and he had planned on going back to get more degrees, and then become a sports orthopedic surgeon. That wasn't going to happen though: "I was diagnosed as disabled, according to NFL doctors," he explained. "The collateral ligaments in my thumb was ruptured, which won't allow me to flex my thumb."

With that no longer a possibility, Henderson has since gone in a different direction, and partners with a whopping 150 Wisconsin-based charities via his own foundation, Henderson Helps. That, he told TMJ4, has a heavy focus on something he knows a lot about: bullying. Once a popular target of countless bullies, he now says, "I have to do everything I can to make these young people know they are cared about, so they're not alone." He also spent some time as an owner-operator of four sweetFrog frozen yogurt shops. After getting out of that, he opened a bread distribution company, which he told NFLPA was "to create jobs for family and friends."

Linebacker George Koonce had played 128 games over nine seasons in the NFL, and when he spoke with ESPN in 2015, he said that in itself had been a dream come true. He described himself as coming from a "socially and economically deprived area of eastern North Carolina," and when he was young, all he'd wanted was a chance to go to college.

That chance turned into an NFL career and a trip to the Super Bowl, but since his retirement, his life has only gotten bigger and better. After spending some time as the Packers' director of player development, Koonce moved on to become Marian University's vice president of advancement. He told the Post Crescent that it was "all about giving individuals opportunities and a chance to live out the American dream," and credited his late father with instilling in him a drive "to never give up."

The year after he started at Marian, he headed off to spend a summer at the Harvard Institute for Educational Management, saying that he hoped to inspire other NFL players to keep striving for greatness in their post-NFL careers. It's what he continues to do: Dr. Koonce has most recently spoken to the United Nations about his work with the substance use prevention program Listen First, saying that above all, we all needed to work together, "individually and collectively, to do what we can to ensure people's dignity, safety, health, and good quality of life."

Cornerback Tyrone Williams was chosen by the Packers as a third-round draft pick out of Nebraska and went right from college graduation to the Super Bowl. It wasn't until he moved on from the Packers after seven seasons that he said, "You don't really notice it until you go to another team ... you start to appreciate the old feeling."

In 1997, the Associated Press reported that he had headed off to jail to serve six months for an incident that had happened back in 1994. He had been convicted of third-degree assault and unlawful discharge of a gun. Williams served his time, and after his retirement, he decided to do something to help others avoid the same situations he'd found himself in.

In 2014, he spoke with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about the allegations against Darren Sharper, which he called "one of the worst things" to happen in the NFL. He also spoke about his own company, TruPros, founded with the idea of helping players deal with balancing life in sports and outside of it, along with preparing them to deal with post-retirement. "What I try to get across is this, it's life. Understand how the world works ... The beauty of it is that I survived it all ... So I feel I have a lot of information that has to be spread." As of 2022, his LinkedIn still lists him as president of the company, but the website is no longer in service.

A first-round draft pick in 1996, John Michels — and the Packers — thought that he was going to become a regular fixture at Brett Favre's side. The plan was to have the rookie learn alongside 12-year vet Ken Ruettgers, but when Ruettgers went down with an injury, Michels said, "I was kind of thrown into the fire right off the bat."

Michels spent the whole season in and out of the game, but what's that saying about the best-laid plans? It wasn't long before he found himself dealing with a catastrophic injury, and a knee that would no longer support him, much less allow him to play football. Michels was ultimately traded to Philly in 1999 and was forced into an early retirement just a few weeks later.

Michels called his rookie year "a dream," and told Last Word on Sports that he had planned on a 15-year-long career. When that didn't happen, he didn't let it slow him down. Inspired by the doctors who helped him through his own injuries — and six knee surgeries — he went back to school, became double board certified in pain medicine and radiology, and currently works as a specialist in international pain medicine at Interventional Spine & Pain in Dallas, Texas. He described his work and goals as being focused on "conservative therapies and minimally invasive procedures to help minimize pain, maximize function, and get people back to living out their dreams."

Don Beebe was already a veteran receiver when he headed to the Packers; a free agent at the time, he told Fansided that he'd let his agent know that he wanted to go where he could win a Super Bowl — and that was Green Bay.

Beebe was first a part of that infamous Buffalo Bills team that headed to the Super Bowl so many times that it seemed like they would absolutely have to win eventually ... but didn't. So, when Beebe found himself winning a Super Bowl in a green uniform instead of a blue-and-white one, he says it was bittersweet. "I felt really guilty. Why me? Why me when there were guys more deserving than me? I wished they could all be there ... I pray that one day the Bills will win a Super Bowl." Fun fact? When the '96 Packers went to the Super Bowl, only Beebe and backup QB Jim McMahon had ever played in one before.

After he retired, he founded the training facility House of Speed, which focuses on character as much as physicality. (To date, more than 100,000 athletes have gone through the program.) Then, in 2018, he joined Aurora University as their head coach. He's still there and is active with charities like Make-A-Wish, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Check almost any list of defensive achievements for the Packers, and it's almost guaranteed that LeRoy Butler is going to be on there somewhere. The four-time All-Pro safety started out at cornerback, but once he switched to safety, he found his space — and made history in another epic way. He was the first one to do the famous Lambeau Leap — the celebratory jump into the arms of fans.

When ESPN caught up with in 2015, he was doing radio and TV commentary for the Packers, had written a few books — including his memoir — and was regularly traveling to schools to talk about the consequences of bullying.

It's that campaign that seems most near and dear to his heart. In 2021, ABC reported that he was using what he had learned while speaking in his Butler Vs. Bullying campaign. Butler said that he had found that kids wanted something to do — so, he was launching a new initiative to help them. His GameNight Productions is an organization designed to teach students about things like lighting, sound, and video techniques, all so they can hold their own game nights centered around their community's sports teams. He simply summed up his mission like this: "Let's get back to helping our community."