Barfarn
7 years ago

He is an arrogant jerk. I met him once. He would only talk to me if I bought his book. No one was there. I just wanted to tell him I was glad he recovered his stolen SB ring. Every time I walked around the table to look him in the face, he turned away. After 4 or 5 attempts one of his handlers told me I need to pay to talk to him. I get it. But there was no line. No one was there. I told the handler loud enough for him to hear me too what I wanted to say and then followed it with the comment if I have to buy his book to tell him that I will never read it.

I wouldn't walk across the room to see him again.

Originally Posted by: wpr 



Kramer is a stud of a human being!

You tried to talk to a person at his "job;" his book signing gig without "paying?" You're lucky Jerry didn't make eye contact; his next move may have been hitting you like he hit Jethro Pugh during the Icebowl 😂

The argument that no one was there is the same as: at game time there's a seat in the stadium not being used, I'm entitled to it for free. Or you wont sell all that milk by expiration date, you better give me a gallon for free. Or the prostitute that had "no one in line" and griping the bitch didn't give you a free hummer.

The guy sold his SB ring, 'cause he needed the money.

Next time, don't be an insolent, disrespectful self-entitled cheap ass...buy the damn book? And read it, it'll teach ya about life!
uffda udfa
7 years ago
Have you been hacked? Very adversarial and off putting replies today from "you"?

Ask Ken Bowman what kind of guy Jerry is. Do some research!
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Ted Thompson sits on his hands per former GM: "because they’ve had 25 fricking years of great quarterbacks. Of course it works. Try it without a special quarterback."


wpr
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7 years ago

Don't know Kramer or what type of person he or any other player is for that matter. All we know is what the media shows us mostly and they usually try to portray them in a good light because it is all about money.

But I always try to relate to what it would be like to be a well known player or celeb. While WPR might have been the only one there at that moment, we don't know what went on prior that day. Imagine how many jerks he has had to deal with over the years that may have said they only want to shake his hand or pay a complement. I can only imagine what it is like to live where anytime you are in a public place somebody wants to come up to you no matter how innocent the reason.

Originally Posted by: PackFanWithTwins 



I get it. Celebs are inundated with the demands of the public. When I was a kid I real Bob Gibson’s book, From Ghetto to Glory. He talked about how rude the public can be. They would come up to him while he was eating dinner and expect him to talk with them for a half hour. He explained that even 15 min over the course of a day, week, month and year would add up to a substantial amount of time. He also said if people are pleasant and respectful he would be too. IE: no autographs while he is eating but if you wait until later he would oblige you.
Kramer didn’t owe me anything. I wasn’t going to ask for his autograph a selfie with him or a free copy of his book. Nothing. Just say hello. 5 seconds. Now he didn’t know what I wanted but he didn’t try and find out either did he?
My position is no matter how rude others have been, he doesn’t know me. It would not hurt him whatsoever to greet another human being. The best people at marketing would be outgoing and call me over. “Hey how ya doing Sport/Slick/Buddy? Do ya have tickets to the game today? Fantastic! Where are you from? That’s amazing! Look, I’d like to sit here and talk with you but I made a commitment to my publisher. I can only visit with you if book get one of my books. I think it’s hogwash but it’s in the contract.”
I have seen this approach time and time again. It works. Only the few wouldn’t agree that he’s right.
Stan Musial lived his whole life this way. He walked up to people and greeted them with, “Whadda say, whadda say, whadda say?” If they asked for his autograph he pulled them out of his pocket. It was his picture, his signature and a little blurb of some kind. I forget what it was because he changed it from time to time. He had book deals and signature signing deals but he still gave all those freebies away.
I one spoke to a retired Miami Dolphin. He had a long line of people that wanted his signature. I had some time to kill so I got in line. Just as the signing period was about to end some guy in a wheel chair was pushed to the front of the line. I stepped aside and told him to get in front of me. When he was done, the player looked at me and said, “I’m sorry Friend. I am out of time. I have got to go. They’re waiting on me right now.” I told him I understood and that I was glad he gave the other person his signature instead. He reached over and shook my hand and we both walked away. That was class.
Those who give a little of themselves get it back 100 fold.
No doubt you noticed that I think Kramer could have handled it better. He could have told me he is working and his time is money. He’s here to promote his book. By turning away and letting his handler run me off, in my opinion, makes him look bad. I realize others look at it differently. They think letting someone else do the dirty work keeps him from looking like a jerk.
I was thinking of not saying anything to barfan but then I would be pulling myself down to the Kramer level. So instead of ignoring him I will point out that he is wrong, yet again. Kramer didn’t sell his ring because he needed the money. It was stolen. He had a duplicate ring made. The original was missing for about 50 years. He was found about 2-3 months before I saw him.

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Zero2Cool
7 years ago
I don't know Jerry Kramer, never bumped into him or nothing. I want him into the Hall of Fame so we stop talking about it. It's similar to me like Colin Kaepernick not being on a team. In the sense that I want the chatter to just go away. If he was good enough to be on a team, he would be. If Kramer is good enough to get into the Hall of Fame, he will.

The mob mentality I just do not like.
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PackFanWithTwins
7 years ago

Every time I walked around the table to look him in the face, he turned away. After 4 or 5 attempts one of his handlers told me I need to pay to talk to him. I get it. But there was no line. No one was there. I told the handler loud enough for him to hear me too what I wanted to say and then followed it with the comment if I have to buy his book to tell him that I will never read it.

Originally Posted by: wpr 



Now look at it from his perspective. What I highlighted could easily be seen as rude. You are right though, it probably wouldn't have hurt him to give you a few seconds or minutes true but as you say, he doesn't know you. Every person who doesn't get a piece of his time probably says the same thing. It wouldn't hurt him, I just wanted to shake is hand or say hi.

Personally, if I had tried to get him to look at me once and he turned away. I wouldn't have tried 4 or 5 more times. I probably wouldn't even try once. Few years ago, my daughter was on the same youth softball team as Bill Ferrario's daughter. I didn't recognize him right away but noticed others coming up to him. Later I found out who he was and it pissed me off. The guy is just trying to be a Dad the same as me. I chatted with him a couple times never about football, treated him the same as I would any other parent at a kids game.


The world needs ditch diggers too Danny!!!
beast
7 years ago

Are you excited?

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 


Side note: Robert Brazile and Ted Thompson were both linebackers for the Houston Oilers during 1975–1984. I'm surprised they both started and ended the same year.
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wpr
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7 years ago

Now look at it from his perspective. What I highlighted could easily be seen as rude. You are right though, it probably wouldn't have hurt him to give you a few seconds or minutes true but as you say, he doesn't know you. Every person who doesn't get a piece of his time probably says the same thing. It wouldn't hurt him, I just wanted to shake is hand or say hi.

Personally, if I had tried to get him to look at me once and he turned away. I wouldn't have tried 4 or 5 more times. I probably wouldn't even try once. Few years ago, my daughter was on the same youth softball team as Bill Ferrario's daughter. I didn't recognize him right away but noticed others coming up to him. Later I found out who he was and it pissed me off. The guy is just trying to be a Dad the same as me. I chatted with him a couple times never about football, treated him the same as I would any other parent at a kids game.

Originally Posted by: PackFanWithTwins 



I have had time to think about my comment. Time tends to blur the memory.

I didn't walk 4 or 5 times around the table. And when I typed it that was not my intent.

There were probably 3 cafeteria style tables set up. 2 in front and another one maybe two on the side forming the "L" shape.

It takes a long time to walk around all of that plus the tent they were using plus all the people milling around before the game. Actually they were using only the end of the tent. There were also tables set up for anyone to use. There was a band playing at the other end of the tent. People were walking around all over the place.

Since his head was turned to the side I walked around a few feet to try and gain eye contact. He was talking with one of his guys. I didn't plan to interrupt him. That would be rude. He then turned all the way around. I thought it strange. There was no one behind him. I am kind of slow in these matters. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. There must have been something back there he wanted or perhaps he heard someone calling his name. I walked around the side a little more. I was easily 5 feet or more from the tables all the time. I was going to wait my turn. He turned around again. When we started this dance, he would have been facing his right side. He was now facing his left. It never once occurred to me that he was trying to avoid talking to me. I had not said anything to him.

I didn't need him to acknowledge me really. If he looked my way and was not talking to someone I was going to say congratulations, good luck with the new book and walk away. More on his book in a moment.

I walked through the back of the tent by the other tables where people were eating. I ended up back to where I was first standing and he turned back to his right like he did when I first walked up to him. Only now did I begin to suspect this was not a coincidence. While I was thinking about how to approach him the handler told me he wouldn't talk to me. So it wasn't 4 or 5 trips around the table but walking and stopping 4 or 5 times in one full circuit. My apologizes for the error.

There was a question as to why I didn't buy his book. I guess I should mention I am partially dyslexic or something like that. I don't read very many books. It takes me a long time to finish even simple ones. I forget what was written before I get to the bottom of the page. It's rather frustrating. (Glancing at my night stand I have 2 magazines on the Civil War I picked up because I saw a couple of stories that look interesting. They are both from October 2015. While I am very interested in the topics I still have not taken the time to read them.) I have a lot of reading to do for work, church and my various duties for the county board. By the time I get done I don't have a lot of time left for leisure reading. I don't even read most of the long posts here which I find funny because I can have some rather lengthy comments myself.

Instead of commenting on other posts I try and simple click "applaud and move on.
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Cheesey
7 years ago
Wayne, when did that happen with Kramer? I mean, what year? I know he admitted in the past that he was a jerk, and was trying to change his ways.
I saw him at fan fest in 2009afrer my open heart surgery. I had taken a photo of him the previous year, and asked if he could sign it for me. He did, and we talked for several minutes about my open heart surgery, which was only 23 days before fan fest. He asked me "what the hell are you doing HERE?" I told him "I'm a Packer fan!" And he said "I guess you really are!"
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uffda udfa
7 years ago
Wayne...Please, do not let any backlash in what you shared dissuade your future input. It's sad that Kramer is being defended because he's a former Packer. This is the very thing that I rail against. This rewriting of the narrative due to Packer bias. Truth is truth. Period. Kramer is a jerk. You were treated poorly and that is wrong.

Cheesey...Thank you for noting what Kramer has said about himself...he is a first class jerk. I saw this on another forum. I also saw that Bart Starr was offended by the book, "Distant Replay". That was par for the course for ol' Jerry...

I think Kramer pretty much shot himself in the foot on this multiple times. He was the first player to really effectively market himself for after-football careers, but he wrote a lot during what even he says was his "I love myself" phase, which according to him ended long ago (like telling Frank Sinatra how to sing), but seems to continue. He has so pissed on so many of his teammates and coaches, and so marketed the Lombardi line that I'd bet the Hall of Fame fears for what he'd do if he were ever elected. You ought to read all of his self-glorifying books...for example, his "Distant Replay" book, it's essentially how he's so great (down to printing a letter from his ex-wife saying he's a good guy) and running down some of his teammates, which is a continuing theme. He'd said horrible things about Henry Jordan in his "Farewell to Football" boook, but in the "Distant Replay" book he tries to make nice to a guy who's been dead for 20 years and can't respond.

The guy's been married a bunch of times, and finds venues to run down all his ex wives, again see his "Distant Replay" book.

I read a book about all time Packers numbers where the author (a 50 year fan) said essentially that Kramer was a good player but a real jerk to fans.

My dad loved Jerry Kramer as a player, and I have to say he was really, really good. But he's a major jerk, and there are too many people from that era that remember that. I'm betting many of the Packer Hall of Famers are part of why he's not there.

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Ted Thompson sits on his hands per former GM: "because they’ve had 25 fricking years of great quarterbacks. Of course it works. Try it without a special quarterback."


wpr
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7 years ago

Wayne, when did that happen with Kramer? I mean, what year? I know he admitted in the past that he was a jerk, and was trying to change his ways.
I saw him at fan fest in 2009afrer my open heart surgery. I had taken a photo of him the previous year, and asked if he could sign it for me. He did, and we talked for several minutes about my open heart surgery, which was only 23 days before fan fest. He asked me "what the hell are you doing HERE?" I told him "I'm a Packer fan!" And he said "I guess you really are!"

Originally Posted by: Cheesey 



I had to go look it up. It was 2008. My guess is if he realized he was being a jerk, he must have been pretty bad. I am glad you had a chance to speak with him.
I also discovered last year he sold that ring. Barfarn was right about that but it wasn't because of debit. It was for the grandkids college fund.

recovered ring 
auctioned off  
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Fan Shout
beast (28m) : In other news, the Green Bay Packers have signed Zero2Cool to update their website 😋 jk
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