- Inducted: 2010
- Tackle: 1977-85
- Height: 6-4; Weight: 270
- College: Arkansas, 1973-76
The offensive line is pro football’s foxhole. It’s where many who have played there over time – if not almost all – yearn the respect of their teammates more than all-pro laurels. They prefer to earn their spurs in the trenches rather than seek fame through headlines.
That was pretty much the story of Greg Koch’s career. In nine years with the Packers, where he missed only two games and started all but four after his rookie year, Koch was never chosen for the Pro Bowl or named to an all-pro team. The closest he came was in 1982 when he was chosen second team by the Newspaper Enterprise Association. But Koch had the abiding respect of most of the players and coaches who counted on him the most.
“Not many people had more pride than Greg Koch,” Lynn Dickey, the Packers’ starting quarterback for most of Koch’s career, said more than 30 years after they last played together. “I loved him because he thought he was really good. He didn’t care who it was. It could have been the biggest name in the game and if he went up against him, he wanted to fight. He wanted to be the best. I think it bugged him a little that other tackles around the league were getting more notoriety and it probably had a lot to do with us being 8-8 every year for a long time.”
“A lot of offensive linemen block by getting in the way, basically just keeping themselves between the defender and the ball carrier,” said former teammate Larry McCarren. “Greg Koch paved the way. The man was born to drive block. Strong, athletic … he’d rip off the ball, ram his head right into the defender’s numbers and knock him off the line of scrimmage. He could single-handedly punch a hole in a defense, and he did it consistently. You see a lot of grabbing on and wrestling in today’s game, but with Greg, it was all about hitting folks. When it came to pass protection, he had to temper that aggression but even when making the transition…