Green Bay Packers: 50 greatest players in franchise history

Greatest players in Green Bay Packers history: 11. Herb Adderley

The Packers have had plenty of outstanding defensive backs of the year. One player who was instrumental in the Packers’ heyday during the Vince Lombardi era was none other than cornerback Herb Adderley. Green Bay made a fantastic selection taking this corner with the No. 12 overall pick in the 1961 NFL Draft.

Adderley spent his first nine of his 12 hall of fame seasons with The Pack. While he did end up playing for the Dallas Cowboys to end his career, Adderley’s best years came while in Packers uniform. Adderley won five NFL championships with the Packers, including the first two Super Bowls in 1966 and 1967. He won a third and final Super Bowl as a member of the 1971 Cowboys.

Adderley was a seven-time All-Pro and made five straight trips to the Pro Bowl from 1963 to 1967. In his peak as a player, Adderley was an interception machine. He recorded 39 in Packers uniform and 48 in his hall of fame career. Perhaps most impressively, he found pay dirt on seven of those 48 career interceptions.

Adderley is a member of the Packers Hall of Fame. He made the NFL’s All-Decade Team for the 1960s. Eight years after retiring from the Cowboys in 1972, Adderley would earn Canton enshrinement. His Canton classmates include Deacon Jones, Bob Lilly and Jim Otto. That has to be one of the best Pro Football Hall of Fame classes ever put together.