Jim Biever/Green Bay Packers
Clifton was part of eight Green Bay playoff teams.
Chad Clifton, left tackle for the Green Bay Packers between 2000 and 2011, has been no stranger to Wisconsin since he retired holding the franchise’s No. 2 spot for most games played by an offensive tackle (165, behind Forrest Gregg’s 187). The two-time Pro Bowler was in Rhinelander last month, where his 8- and 10-year-old sons attend Camp Deerhorn, and he still visits Packers team physician Patrick McKenzie.
Clifton will make another return to the state when he’s inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame July 23 in the Lambeau Field Atrium. Free safety and former teammate Nick Collins (2005-11) and longtime radio broadcaster Russ Winnie (1929-46) also will be honored.
“Obviously I’m very excited,” Clifton says from the farm he owns south of Nashville. “Thinking about all the great Packers that came through and played on that field, it’s very humbling. I felt like I had a great career in Wisconsin, but I didn’t realize it was going to be Hall of Fame-worthy.”
Clifton blocked for Peyton Manning at the University of Tennessee in the ’90s and helped the Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. All told, he was part of eight Green Bay playoff teams.
But perhaps he’s most remembered for being on the wrong end of a blindside hit from Tampa Bay defensive tackle Warren Sapp late in the 2002 season. “I remember the play,” says Clifton. “It was an interception. I was doing a slow trot over to the sidelines. All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye, I see a player — not even realizing it was Warren Sapp at the time — getting ready to lay me out.”
Clifton was hospitalized for almost a week and couldn’t walk on his own for more than five weeks. He missed the rest of the season but came back to start all of Green Bay’s 18 games in 2003, including playoffs.
After that game with the Buccaneers, Packers head coach Mike Sherman took Sapp to task face-to-face for the cheap shot; Sapp fired back with “Put a jersey on!”
“I definitely tip my hat to Coach Sherman,” Clifton says. “I think the incident made me a better player. I didn’t want that to be the end of my career so early into it, so I trained harder than ever that offseason to get back.”
Clifton says the incident is still a conversation starter to this day. “I was in the mall a couple weeks ago, and the guy behind the checkout counter said to me, ‘Hey, Chad Clifton. Man, Warren Sapp really cleaned you up a few years ago, didn’t he?’” Clifton laughs. “‘Yes, he did. I appreciate you bringing that up.’”
Another question Clifton gets a lot: What was it like playing with two of the game’s greatest quarterbacks, Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers? “Everybody called Brett ‘the gunslinger’ because he had that mentality where he was going to go out and give it every single thing he had,” Clifton says. “Aaron does that as well, but his play is a little more methodical. He has a plan for each and every moment that happens out there on the field. Both of them have the strongest arms I’ve ever been around, and it was an absolute joy to play with them and be able to tell my kids and friends what that was like.”
