The thirteenth appearance by the Green Bay Packers on the cover of Sports Illustrated came near the end of the 1968 season, after the Packers lost 16-3 to the Baltimore Colts in Lambeau Field. On the cover, running back Donny Anderson is wrapped up by “Baltimore’s Volk and Gaubatz” and the text reads, “A Dynasty Totters.” The article inside begins under the headline “Au Revoir, Packers!,” reflecting the thoughts of football fans everywhere who were tired of the Packers winning the NFL championship the previous three years in a row.The story states that “the loss snuffed out what dim hope the Packers had to win their fourth straight championship,” and that “the Packers’ defeat by Baltimore was, in a way, a microcosm of the whole unfortunate year for Green Bay... countless words undoubtedly will be written describing the Green Bay debacle as the end of a dynasty, but this is a theory the Packers themselves do not endorse. To them, the disasters of 1968 were an interruption, not an end. All the bad luck Green Bay escaped in the nine years under Vince Lombardi seemed to descend upon the team in Phil Benston’s first season as coach, and the avalanche of injuries, bad bounces, missed field goals and untimely penalties resulted in Green Bay’s first losing season since 1959.”
“If they should fail to recapture their Lombardi years, the problem will very likely be found at quarterback. Starr, when healthy, is still one of the most capable quarterbacks in football, but at 35 he has reached the age where injuries linger, and it would be foolhardy to expect him to grow sturdier in the seasons to come.”
Bart Starr would indeed be injured often after that season and would never recapture the success of the championship years — retiring in 1971. Sports Illustrated would not feature the Packers again for many years.
