Card: 1959 Topps Football #4

Team/Position: Wide Receiver (END) / Green Bay Packers

Cost: $3.75

If there were a Hall of MAN Fame, Max McGee would be the very first inductee.

Speaking of which, who’s your very first induction class for the Man’s Hall of Fame?  Richard Roundtree as Shaft with Isaac Hayes getting a supporting nod is a good start. Shawn Kemp, The Rainman, definitely gets a first ballot induction — Hell, let’s give him one for each and every illegitimate child that he’s fathered.  JFK’s in, if even half the rumors are true, and Oliver Stone’s probably in too.  The entire Rat Pack gets an induction, but only Sinatra, Davis Jr. and Dean Martin get in on the first ballot.

Brett Favre, upon retirement, would also become eligible and definitely be a first ballot Hall of Famer.  Favre pitches Wrangler Jeans, makes fun of himself in a Sears commercial, and dealt with a Percocet addiction.  There’s also little doubt in my mind that Brett Favre rested a tall-boy of Budweiser on a sorority girls head whilst receiving a dirty gummer during his days at Southern Miss.

Danny McBride who plays Kenny Powers in East Bound and Down is well on his way to becoming a first ballot HOFer.

Back To McGee…

McGee didn’t have a HOF career, but he definitely put up some numbers:  6346 receiving YDS, 50 TD on 345 receptions.   McGee went to one Pro Bowl (1961) and was part of 3 Packers Championship Teams and 2 Super Bowl Championship teams.

McGee decided to serve his country as an Air Force pilot for two years after his 1954 rookie season.  After returning, McGee went on to a career worthy of induction into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.

The Story That Made McGee

Max McGee and Paul Hornung loved to party.  There’s rumors abroad about Max and Paul constantly sneaking out past curfew to party-it-up.

Before what’s now known as Super Bowl 1, Max McGee had succumbed to father time.  During the 1966 regular season, McGee only had 4 receptions for 96 yards and a touchdown, but his luck was about to change.

The Packers advanced to the Super Bowl and Lombardi told McGee that there’s no way in hell that he’d play.  Max took that as free license to go out the night before and have a jolly good time before getting but a single hour’s worth of sleep.  Max was so certain that he wouldn’t play, he decided to leave his helmet in the Packers locker room. McGee was as hungover as one can get and then, after he’d told Dowler not to get hurt because he was in bad shape, the impossible happened;  Dowler hurt his shoulder on the second play of the game.

McGee was forced to borrow a teammates helmet before going off for 7 receptions, 138 yards, and two touchdowns en route to a Packers victory in Super Bowl 1.

Hall of Famer

Just looking at Max’s male pattern baldness at 27 tells you everything that you need to know.  McGee eventually passed away at 75 — He fell off the roof while cleaning the eavestrough with a leaf blower.

Here’s to Max McGee, a man’s man.

Max McGee’s rookie-card is readily available for under 10-bucks.