After being hospitalized for a month due to kidney failure, Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Packers great Willie Davis died at the age of 85. Willie played collegiately at Grambling State and was selected with the 181st pick of the 1956 NFL Draft. He was one of the main pieces of a Packers team led by Vince Lombardi that won 2 Super Bowls.
Former Packers and Browns Hall-of-Fame DE Willie Davis, an all-NFL selection five times during a career in which he never missed a game over his 12 seasons, passed away today, per the @ProFootballHOF. Davis was 85.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 15, 2020
Davis currently holds the Green Bay record of 21 recovered fumbles. If better records had been kept in his day, he would also hold the title of all-time leader in sacks. “I would think would have to be the team’s all-time leader in sacks. I played 10 years and I averaged in the ‘teens’ in sacks for those 10 years. I had 25 one season,” Davis told Packers.com However, Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila officially holds that record with 74.5 in 9 seasons. Clay Matthews is second with 72.5 in 8 seasons, followed by the legendary Reggie White with 68.5 in 6 seasons. Interestingly enough, statistician for the Professional Football Researchers Association, John Turner, projected that Willie Davis had more than 100 sacks in his 10 seasons. He went on to say that it may have been as many as 120.
His accolades awarded him 5 Pro Bowl appearances and an induction into the Packers Hall of Fame in 1975. However, perhaps his greatest achievement in the realm of football came in 1981. Willie Davis was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In addition to this, he proudly served on the Green Bay Packers board of directors from 1994-2005. This feat was quite significant. Davis was only the 2nd second black member to ever serve on the board.
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