With Green Bay kicking off the new season in Seattle tonight, it seems appropriate to pull out a Ray Nitschke card from the collection.

If ever there was a last name to match a football player, it was Nitschke. Mean, tenacious, and the soul of Lombardi’s great defenses. Also, an Illinois alum. So he has that going for him.

This quote from Nitschke defined his career:

“It was the character of the Packers, man. We played for sixty minutes. We let it all hang out. There was no tomorrow for us. We got the adrenaline flowing, and we just let it go, man.”