I remember that game vividly! What fun watching the Packer magic and ultimately foiling Joe Theisman and the Redskins. How appropriate was it that the defense let us down that year and so many years since. Crazy to think but the Packers have won a Super Bowl every time they built a good defense while we have ultimately come up short many times with top offenses. There's a lesson in there somewhere I think...

Has the defense
Team us down

Or Farve throwing a pick

Or Kickers missing Fg. San Fran

Or on side kicks

Do I need to go on

I think we had a good defense with the smith boys. And Rodger’s layed some eggs

Block punts. 49ers at home

I think defense has kept us in lots of games

Or maybe Ted let us down. Picking. Kevin king vs Tj watt

Was in college that season, remember it vividly. Remember watching the Monday Night game in my dorm room. 29 interceptions might seem absurd to the modern viewer, but 20+ interception seasons were sorta normal back then.

Thanks for the article!

Hmmm. Defense couldn't hold a lead at the end of the game.....a tradition unlike any other.

Theos Packers were fun to watch. Lynn Dickey was the best Packers QB between Starr and Favre. Lofton remains my favorite Packers receiver. Un fortunately the defense just wasn't very good back then. It was another time when too many draft choices just didn't work out. Thanks, Since '61

The 1983 Packers offense was something else to watch. They seemed to be able to score on anyone, anytime.

The defense? They were much like the Packers Special Teams of the last several years.

You watched with one eye CLOSED!

I definitely don’t have the fond memories of the 1983 season that your dad has. It was a totally frustrating season watching Starr waste this great offense by never fixing the crap defense. And the defense should have been better, it had some good players; Mike Butler, Mike Douglass, Ezra “Hot Dog “ Johnson, John Anderson, and Mark Lee. Starr didn’t value defense and would blame the losses on the fans and media not being positive enough. I wasn’t sad to see Starr go but the team really hit the skids with Forrest Gregg.

I remember watching that game knowing I had a 8:00 a.m. Chemistry exam the next morning. Our prof. was huge GB fan and was so happy, she put off the exam until the next week. Whew!

Loved watching Dickey play. After Mr. Rodgers went to the Jets, I had my "12" jersey altered with a Dickey name plate. Wore it to the LV game and the guys behind us were so stoked about it, they bought everyone in our group a couple rounds of beers. Really cool! I wonder just how awesome Dickey would be with the modern day protections for offensive players. Dude threw the best long ball.

Great catches and throws in the highlights. The best part for me was watching the O line. Go back and take a look at McCarren, Koch and Swanke taking care of business. I thought Darrel Goforth was a part of that team, but the internet says he left in 1982. McCarren always spoke highly of him.

That team had decent DBs with Lee, Gray, McCoy and Murphy, and Ezra Johnson had 14.5 sacks. LBs were good, too, with Wingo, Anderson, Cumby and Douglass. Sure couldn't get a stop when we needed one, though.

Thanks for the nice article, Luke.

Born in 1962, I also was there. It was a wacky, woeful, wonderful season.
First of all, thanks to Mr. Leavitt for evoking memories of 1983 in the above writing, and my warm greetings to your father.
As a senior in college at Northwestern, I watched that game about 15 miles away from what was a bitterly cold Soldier Field in Chicago.
I was fortunate to receive the Chick Evans Caddy Scholarship to pay for most of my educational expenses, and was able to reside in a vintage stone house with ivy, in a leafy quad on campus, with about 40 other guys who had caddied at various golf clubs in the Chicago area -- most of whom were ardent Bears fans.
As the lone Packers fan, I had to endure a lot of good-natured razzing, going back to my freshman year of 1980 when Vince Evans led the Bears to a 61-7 thrashing of the Packers.
***
Then, in the strike-shortened 1982 season, the Packers seemed to finally break through under Bart Starr, and would win a home playoff game against the St. Louis Cardinals with the highlights of quarterback Lynn Dickey connecting with John Jefferson on a couple of long passes (as best I can remember it, as is the case with this entire recollection).
Against the Cowboys the next week, the Packers put up a good fight in a loss, with Dickey throwing a key block on a reverse play to spring James Lofton for a thrilling touchdown.
It seemed the Packers were figuring it out with Starr as the longtime head coach, and the dazzling aerial displays of Dickey and his receivers, and it was a very good thing after so many seasons of dreariness.
***
What I remember of that game in 1983 against the Bears includes prominently the inhuman frigidness that hit home to me personally as living nearby, as well as the Packers coming through in pulling out a clutch drive to go ahead late in the game, with a win putting us in the playoffs. It really was sad to see a young Jim McMahon drive the Bears in the waning moments to a field goal for their victory and our loss.
In hindsight, and with the aid of article above, it does seem sad that the Packers fired Bart Starr after that near miss of a season. At the time, I may have been not so sure if it was the right decision. I was sad to see Starr go, but he had had a lot of seasons to get the Packers right. I would become excited about Forrest Gregg taking over after having had led the Bengals to a recent trip to the Super Bowl. Looking at it now, it would have been better to give Starr at least one more season.
Staying in the Chicago area after graduation, it was the beginning of a rough ride as the Packers descended not only into poor play but also poor sportsmanship -- while the Bears ascended to the Super Bowl Shuffle.
It was painful to watch William "The Refrigerator" Perry score touchdowns in both games against the Packers in the 1985 season, one of them with a pass reception.
Actually, growing up in the Chicago suburb of Wheaton, I'm perhaps the only person in America who has rooted enthusiastically for the Packers and the Bears simultaneously -- but my main loyalty always stayed firmly with the Packers to the extent of Bears fans giving me a hard time in basically a good way.
Nowadays, though, after living outside of Chicagoland since 1998, my interest in the Bears has waned almost completely, while my enthusiasm for the Packers abounds.
***
As a matter of perspective, I agree that there can be fun and fondly-remembered seasons for a team even if it gets knocked off before winning a title. I loved the Bucks teams of the late 1970s and early 1980s with the likes of Moncrief, Winters, Johnson, Bridgeman, and Lanier. They were thwarted by the dual obstacle of magnificent teams in the Celtics and 76ers, which was frustrating but understandable.
I'm grateful for this article for evoking welcome memories about the 1983 Packers and its ups and downs, its thrills and spills. It was a good ride that unfortunately sputtered at the end.
That the Packers put up a valiant effort in the severe cold of their last game, against a Bears team that turned out to be on the rise, is a consolation.
God bless Bart Starr for all he gave to the Packers as a team, and us as fans.
***
As for the Packers of today, the key is to go all out to bring home another Lombardi Trophy to Titletown.
However, so few seasons end in championships that it's good to appreciate the lesser accomplishments of the Packers.
My main concern is our head coach getting the most out of his team.
It seems that so many recent seasons have ended with the feeling that the Packers could have done more as a team, that opportunities were left wanting.
Whether or not that's the case, the challenge for LaFleur is to have learned from his experiences successful and unsuccessful, and to bring the 2026 version of the Packers to the fullness of their potential, with a strong and satisfying finish.

Punctuation is important. Did Lynn Dickey throw for 4400 yards, more than any Green Bay quarterback ever had to that point; or did he throw 4400 yards more than any Green Bay quarterback ever had to that point.

4400yds in 1983 is pretty amazing either way. Even in Favre's era passing for 3000yds was a feat. I was too young and living out of state at this time to remember. Super Bowl IXX was the first one I can remember.

I get that Lynn Dickey never came close to bringing home the hardware, but it really is at travesty that his name is typically omitted from the Green Bay Packers QB Pedigree list of Starr, Favre, and Rodgers.

As I've heard Gary Ellerson state before, "..the great Lynn Dickey- and make no mistake about it, he was a GREAT QB."

I remember watching that game, and telling my wife that whoever had the ball last would win. And as I remember, Washington had it last, and missed the winning FG. Saw Dickey, Lofton, et al play the Vikings at "the old Metropolitan Stadium" in 1980. Vikings were dominate that year, but those Packers came to play and ran away w/ the win. My buddy and I were surrounded by Vikings fans who generously shared their thermos of hot chocolate and schnapps.

I remember the season well. I had to work the night of the Monday night game and a buddy took my seat. Chances lost!

Two plays from that season: watching Dickey drop a ball into Lofton's hands without him breaking stride. The play from start to finish was directly on an angle from where I sat. The ball literally dropped from the sky and Lofton barely looked up. That's a play only professionals could make.

The second was watching John Jefferson do a classic 'jock drop' on a hapless defender and catching a long pass. The fake was so good the defender didn't know where Jefferson was. He was running alone in the secondary.

The games were entertaining but clarified in my mind the classic assertion: defense wins championships.

One of the best highlight videos EVER. Took me back to the old days of listening to noon football on WTMJ on my back porch. And kicking a deck chair so hard that it shattered into little pieces. Never told my wife. These teams were so frustrating, but once a Packer fan, always a Packer fan. But as long as Lynn Dickey was under center, we had a chance. Thanks for the memories, Luke.
The Szotman

Lynn F****** Dickey!!

Loved that dude, a poor mans Dan Marino.

Then there was Lofton and Eddie Lee Ivery who liked to.....
Well, nevermind 😏

The "illustrious" Mark Murphy played safety for the Washington REDSKINS in that game. Yep, the same Mark Murphy who did Green Bay no favors by setting up the three-headed monster that now oversees the Green Bay Packer operation. There most likely will be no return to glory until GB returns to a management structure in which the head coach and CFO both report to the general manager. It's a cluster-you-know-what in Green Bay right now.