Imagine the breadth of your football career if:
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The first NFL regular-season game you ever worked was Packer legend Don Hutson scoring four touchdowns in a 1945 game against the Detroit Lions.The second-to-last NFL regular-season game you ever worked was Packer legend Brett Favre throwing for four touchdowns in a 2003 game against the Oakland Raiders, the day after Favre’s father died.[/list]That was the life of Lee Remmel, who died at 90 on Thursday. And it’s just the life he wanted, first as a reporter covering the Packers of the Curly Lambeau through Dan Devine years, then as a longtime PR man managing head coaches through the Mike Sherman years. In my 31 years covering the NFL, I’ve never met a team employee who loved his team and his state and its people more than Lee Remmel loved the Packers, Wisconsin, and the people who lived there. Covering the Packers over the years has been fun for the stories, to be sure, but also because of the long talks and education from a very nice man who loved everything about his life. The first time I covered a game in Green Bay, I found a gigantic cheddar cheese wheel up in the press box. Seems Lee wanted people who came to Green Bay to get to know the local fare. He told me to get a real local experience, I had to go eat at the Union Hotel in DePere. And the dining room at the Union Hotel, which can’t have changed much since Lombardi ate there, became a regular stop for me.
“Remarkable, remarkable man,” said Ron Wolf, the GM in the Favre days. “A rare person to work with, such a lover of the Packers and a lover of history of everything about the Packers. So many times he’d tell me a vivid memory about something he experienced whether as a writer or our PR guy.”
Most often, players have business relationships with the men who manage their media obligations. Remmel and Brett Favre were different. Remmel called Favre “Brett Lorenzo Favre” (his full name) often in print, and so Favre took to calling Remmel “Leland James Remmel,” imitating Remmel’s deep baritone voice when he used the name. “Our humor connected right away,” Favre said Saturday, “and I am a historian too, sort of.” Favre liked toying with Remmel too, and this is one of my favorite stories since I’ve covered the game:
One year, the Packers played in Chicago on a Monday night. Favre procured a remote-control fart machine at Spencer Gifts, and when the team bus was getting ready to leave, Favre jumped on and put the machine under Remmel’s seat in row two of the bus. Remmel sat directly behind coach Mike Holmgren. And Favre always sat near the back of the bus. He did so this time in an aisle seat, with a clear shot for the remote control at the fart machine. “What was great about the fart machine,” Favre said, “was it had four different kinds of farts. They weren’t all the same.”
The bus ride was quiet, players and coaches in concentration about the game. Seemingly. Favre pressed the button with one kind of fart, then waited a while, then pressed the button for another kind, and on he went, maybe 10 or 12 times. Holmgren steamed. He wasn’t sure if Remmel had gas, or if it was some sort of prank. And when the bus emptied out, Remmel knew who was responsible for the shenanigans. He shot a look at Favre and said nothing. “Typical Lee,” Favre said. “That made it even funnier.”
Peter King wrote: