Story of the Journeymen
Magi were journeymen belonging to a hereditary priestly class in ancient Persia. Traditionally, the three magi beckoned by the Christmas angel to pay homage to the infant Jesus were known as the Wise Men.

That was before Lombardi. Before the power sweep, the Central Division or even the flying wedge.

Chuck Mercein was a journeyman alright, just doing God’s work on the gridiron, but it was not an angel’s voice that took him on a journeyman’s journey from New York to Washington and then Green Bay; it was the raspy voice of a squatty Italian football coach.“ Mercein! What the hell are you doing out there? Mercein! Wake up!” And he did wake up.

He woke up in a cold sweat every December 31st.

It seems his long journey resulted in something less than everlasting glory. Others would have their numbers retired or co-author best selling books. Not Mercein. When he checked into hotels, cashiers would look at his Super Bowl ring and ask, “Where did you buy that ring?”

The Dramatic Year
It was the best of times and it was the best of times. Green Bay, the Gopher Prairie of the sports world, had a football team. And the team, along with Gopher Prairie’s bundled band of meatpackers, papermakers, and cheesecutters, were champions of the world. As one writer put, Green Bay “could deflect all the sneers that big city sophisticates had hurled at small towns for years.”

All this, even if the locals were drinking shots from bowling balls. But it couldn’t last forever. (Jerry Tagge said that all the time.)

1967 became The Dramatic Year. The fading, sagging, aging team earned the right to pursue an unprecedented third consecutive NFL championship.

The rest is history, of course. The Ice Bowl. December 31st. 13-below zero. 16 inches, 16 seconds. Green Bay 21, Dallas 17. Frozen ears. Frozen beers.

Lombardi called the play and Starr kept the ball. Bowman took the hit and Kramer nailed the book deal. Landry took his hat and threw it at Jethro Pugh.

Everybody went out and drank shots from bowling balls.

Chuck Mercein took his pride and went home. For it was Chuck Mercein who gained 44 yards on three plays on that fateful drive. It was Chuck Mercein who made the longest running gain of the day – 18 yards – with just one minute remaining, an extraordinary feat on the icy field.

It was Chuck Mercein who put the ball on the cusp of destiny’s End Zone. Because he was acquired midway through the season, Chuck Mercein did not appear in the 1967 Green Bay Packer team photo. Fate sentenced the journeyman to a life of anonymity.

Magi Halfback
Gift giving has become the most commonly accepted practice during the holiday season. “Oh, it’s just what I wanted” has become the most commonly told lie during the holiday season.

The early magi, the Wise Men, journeyed not to offer gifts of incense, frankincense and myrrh, but to offer themselves, believing it would lead to a greater glory. And so it was for one journeyman, a thousand years later in Green Bay.