The Packers appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the 27th time with the Kansas City Chiefs as part of a “Tales of the Super Bowl: Untold Stories” issue in February 2004. The article was a collection of Super Bowl stories over the years. Pictured shaking hands on the cover prior to the coin toss in Super Bowl I are the Packers’ tackle Bob Skoronski (#76) and defensive end Willie Davis (#87), and the Chiefs’ defensive end Jerry Mays (#75) and a player named “William” (#65). Also pictured is longtime NFL referee Norm Schacter.
Inside the magazine, there is a brief piece about the Packers’ left tackle Bruce Wilkerson, who, at the time of Super Bowl XXXI, was a 10-year veteran who had been signed in 1996 by Green Bay after being cut by Jacksonville. On Media Day, the reporter discovered Wilkerson sitting alone with no one interviewing him, and wondered why. Wilkerson had a stuttering speech problem. The writer states: “Running back Dorsey Levens mentioned it to me while cataloging a list of various Packers’ flaws that he and his teammates took pleasure in making fun of. Obviously, I interrupted, you don’t tease a man about his speech impediment. ‘Oh we kill him about it,’ Levens assured me.”
“Wilkerson’s teammates raved about his economy of movement, his veteran’s wiliness. His resourcefulness, it turned out, was not limited to his footwork. When a certain run was called, it was the play-side tackle’s job to make a line call. One of those calls required him to shout, ‘Cow!’
“In a game earlier that season Wilkerson sought to make the ‘cow’ call but got stuck on the hard ‘c.’ After struggling valiantly — ‘C-c-c-c-c’ — he finally bellowed ‘MOOOO!’ Everyone knew what he meant, left guard Aaron Taylor told me. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that half the offense was laughing too hard to run the play.”
Just one of the things you don’t see while watching the game on television.
