The Green Bay Packers have a reputation as a gold star franchise built wholly on winning, but the first decade or so right after the departure of Vince Lombardi was a very rocky tenure marked by constant poor play on the offensive side of the ball.
Part of the reason this team didn't achieve a lot of success between Lombardi and Brett Favre was that they rarely had a competent quarterback. Green Bay's inability to put an offense together was exemplified in the fact that they took a quarterback with three career touchdowns high in the first round.
Throughout the history of this franchise, there is no quarterback who contributed to more follicles of hair being ripped out than Jerry Tagge.
Jerry Tagge is the worst Green Bay Packers quarterback ever
Tagge, who went to high school in Green Bay and grew up selling snacks at Lombardi-led Packers games, is not one of those quarterback busts everyone saw coming. In fact, Tagge's college resume was so exemplary that the fact that he lasted until the No. 11 pick in the 1972 NFL Draft was a minor miracle.
Tagge threw for 32 touchdowns and 19 interceptions in three years at Nebraska. Considering the time and place, putting up those numbers in a Tom Osborne-led run-heavy 1970s Cornhuskers offense is nothing short of excellence. Coaches who wanted to see Tagge translate those stats into wins weren't left disappointed either.
Tagge didn't lose a game in his final two years in Lincoln, going 11-0-1 and 13-0 in 1970 and 1971. Bob Devaney's Cornhuskers were national champions in both those years, and many believe the 1971 squad (which averaged 36 points per game while allowing just 7.5 per game) is still the greatest team in college football history.
One coach who was on the receiving end of Tagge's domination of the Big 8 conference was Dan Devine. Devine, who was the coach at Missouri during Tagge's reign, selected him at No. 11 after being named head coach of the Packers. Devine succeeded Phil Bengston, Lombardi's long-time defensive coordinator.
Tagge was selected just two picks before Franco Harris. In the 13th round of that draft, future league MVP Brian Sipe was picked. Oops.
Jerry Tagge never played well for the Green Bay Packers
Tagge sat on the bench for his rookie year. While Scott Hunter led the team to a 10-4 record and a loss in the postseason, the fact that he threw just six passing touchdowns all season likely got the wheels spinning on Tagge's eventual ascension into the starting lineup.
Tagge would split time with Hunter and Jim Del Gaizo in 1973, a year in which the Packers went 5-7-2. While they went 3-3 in Tagge's starts, he threw just two touchdowns and seven interceptions. Both of those touchdowns came in the same game at the end of the year when Green Bay was eliminated, and he went 3-12 in that game. Packers quarterbacks combined for seven TDs and 17 interceptions that season.
1974 was supposed to be Tagge's coming-out party, and he flopped. Tagge threw a pathetic one touchdown against 10 interceptions. This prompted Devine to trade multiple picks and players for 34-year-old John Hadl, who was clearly past his prime. Packers quarterbacks threw a whopping five touchdown passes against 21 picks in that 6-8 season.
The Packers cleaned house after that. Devine eventually got his golden parachute back to college when he coached Notre Dame, while Tagge never played in the NFL again. After a stint in the ill-fated WFL and an All-Star nod with the BC Lions in Canada, Tagge quit football and became very successful in finance.
The Packers' post-Lombardi spiral reached a low point under Devine, and Tagge is a big reason why.