A Chat With Former Green Bay Packer Ron Hallstrom

"I tell my kids I had dinner with (Parcells) and they're like, 'What?' The best one though is Bobby Stoops, because Bobby Stoops and I played at Iowa together. It's kind of fun to tell the kids. You get the kids all pumped up about it.

In the early part of his NFL career, Hallstrom played with Lynn Dickey, James Lofton and Larry McCarren: "I learned a lot from those guys, which was great. At that time, there was some heavy hazing for first-round picks. But in the end, they really respected you. In '92, I had a contract dispute and ended up leaving Green Bay and going to Philly. James was there when I got to Philly. Our careers went full circle. I always, always had great respect for James. Phenomenal athlete. One of the best athletes I've ever seen in my life. The guy was just unbelievable. I couldn't believe how fast he was, how svelte he ran. He was a guy that just looked so perfect, running and catching and everything, but that's why he had the success he had. He had the size and strength, too.

During his tenure in Green Bay, Hallstrom played for four head coaches: Starr, Forrest Gregg, Lindy Infante and Mike Holmgren: "Four head coaches and a revolving door just about every other year. That was my Super Bowl, that I made it throught the four head coaches. Four head coaches and two strike seasons: '87 and '82.

Who was the toughest defensive lineman Hallstrom had to face?: "I would say Steve McMichael from the Bears, he was a great player. But probably the best athletic linemen, although I didn't get to play them that much, but probably Randy White from the Cowboys and Howie Long. Howie Long was an unbelievable athlete for his size. Just an unbelievable player. I say Steve McMichael because I had to play him twice a year. But Howie Long and Randy White, I'm glad I only had to play those guys once or twice in my career. I still remember my third year, we went to play the Raiders, I think it's on everyone's highlight film, I think it's Howie Long coming around the corner and sacking (Packers quarterback) Rich Campbell. It's funny, because it's in the NFL archives. When they show Howie Long, that's always one of the plays they show.

On leaving the Packers and signing with the Eagles in '93: When I went to Philly it was the old adage, the grass isn't always greener. I had an opportunity to go back and play (with the Packers) when I left Philly, but I had had enough. I played 12 years, that's 11 more than I ever thought I would. I had no aspirations about milking my career. I think I left the way you should leave, pissed off (laughs), with a contract dispute. I didn't leave on a perfect note, but it makes walking away a little easier. I have no regrets.

On how the Packers handled the Brett Favre situation (Hallstrom played with Favre in '92): You know, that's another guy who is everything that you see. He's as real as it gets. I got to know him for a year, year and a half. I don't know how they should have handled it, I'll just say they handled it wrong. I think a lot of egos got in the way in that deal and I just don't think they handled it right. I'm happy for him. I hated to see them put so much pressure on (Packers QB Aaron) Rodgers. And I think Rodgers has done a pretty good job of dealing with what he had to deal with. I really think it was handled wrong. And I don't know what the right answer would have been. If not pay him $26 million, pay him $46 million, but don't let the guy leave the team. Because you know what? He probably would have played (in 2008) and been done.

Back in December, Hallstrom commented on the 2008 Packers: I think what you're really seeing now is that they haven't surrounded (Rodgers) with the right people. They need an offensive line ... they need a defensive line. (Middle linebacker) Nick Barnett being hurt shows the weaknesses of (AJ) Hawk. There's some serious issues with personnel there. That comes down to (general manager) Ted Thompson. I don't care how you look at it, you can blame the year on Favre and whatever the controversy. ... There's no excuses now. I think Rodgers can get you where you need to go, you just need to surround him with the right people and (Thompson) hasn't.

There were some serious mistakes made this year and I think it was internal. I think egos got too big. When it comes down to the GMs wanting it to be their team and the coaches wanting it to be their team ... it's not their team, it's all their players.'

This year, they haven't been able to stop anybody. If you look at it, you got no defensive line to put pressure on the quarterback, so they've been able to double up on Kampman, which is their best defensive lineman. You got a linebacker that's hurt, which really shows the weakness of the other linebacker, which was a first-round draft pick, who had a phenomenal rookie year but never went anywhere from there. It shows you how well (Barnett) played, which they gave no respect to. Now you've opened up your middle, because of the weaknesses of your linebacker and no pressure on the quarterback.

You play man coverage. You got two guys, who I would say out of 10 plays, they have good coverage for eight of them. There's usually about two that they blow the coverage on. That's all I hear about is how great (cornerback) Al Harris is. The problem is when Al Harris doesn't read about his own publicity, he plays pretty good, but when he reads about how great he is, he usually has a bad game. The guy's a good athlete. But I can't put it all on Al Harris, a lot of it is not getting pressure on the quarterback and he needs to stop reading about himself and just go out and play.

It starts up front and that's the same with the offensive line. A few years ago, they let the two guards go (Mike Wahle and Marco Rivera) in the same year. You can let one go and try to gain that consistency, but when you let both go, that's two of the five guys leaving the team. With that, they're asking for trouble. They've never been able to rebound from that. I said, 'You watch, they're never going to recover from this,' and they haven't. Unless you go out and spend some money to bring someone in and they haven't done that. They never drafted anyone and they haven't gotten anyone (in free agency or trades).

There's some GMs who believe that all you need are a few skill people. Heck, I played with some coaches who believed that. Lindy Infante was that way. He honestly believed that is was his system and all I need was some skill people and the rest of the people were fill-ins. That might get you one good year, but it doesn't get you consistency.

On playing with Tony Mandarich: Mike Holmgren took the (offensive line) from nothing to good. He inherited Tony Mandarich and didn't know what to do with him. He came to me and just said, 'Listen, we're going to put Tony in front of you just to see what the guy can do.' I said, 'Fine do whatever you have to do.' We went through two-a-days with Tony, he was in front of me. They wanted to see what he can do and I'm in my 11th year. That didn't last long and I ended up having one of my best years. It was a matter of just drawing straws, I was the oldest guy there, he was the youngest. But I could play anywhere and they knew that. I could play center, I could play tackle, I could fill in somewhere, just put me anywhere. I didn't care at the time. But it took care of itself.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?