Jeff Saturday had a difficult choice to make this past week. After being released by the Indianapolis Colts, who offered him a front office job rather than bringing him back at center, he had to pick between joining Peyton Manning with the Denver Broncos or going with Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers.
Saturday chose Green Bay, and signed a two year contract on Friday. Saturday had snapped the ball to Manning for 172 of Manning’s 208 games with the Colts, so he would have provided a high degree of comfort to Manning in Denver. Instead, he goes to the Packers who will also be a Super Bowl contender this season, and he’ll be snapping the ball to last year’s NFL MVP, instead of the four-time NFL MVP that he’s used to working with.
“Peyton is a close friend and I loved playing with him,” Saturday said. “I loved the time we spent together. It was the most difficult call I’ve ever made. I told him before anyone else that I was going to Green Bay.”
So what motivated the decision to go with the Packers instead of the Broncos? “I told [Manning] I don’t think the Broncos wanted me as much as he did,” Saturday explained. “I always felt like in Green Bay I was their very first choice.”
The move provides the Packers with a key upgrade as well. They lost their Pro Bowl center Scott Wells, who signed with the St. Louis Rams, and were able to replace him with Saturday, who has five Pro Bowls and one Super Bowl victory under his belt.
Saturday also had one of the toughest center jobs in the league, as Manning called so much of the offense right at the line of scrimmage. Saturday had to work with a lot of no-huddle offense, and blocking adjustments on the line. He would read the defense as well, and provide Manning with another set of eyes as they called plays at the line. After Manning, he may have been the second most critical member of the Colts offense to make that system work, and his knowledge of the game and locker room leadership will be a major asset for Rodgers and the Packers.
Saturday has been just as important a force off the field as he was blocking for Manning on the field. He served as a member of the NFLPA executive committee and emerged as one of the key player leaders during the negotiation of the 2011 collective bargaining agreement.
Saturday also provided the most memorable moment in the entire negotiation last summer. At the press conference announcing the new CBA, Saturday took time to make a special thank you to Myra Kraft, the wife of New England Patriots’ owner Bob Kraft. Myra passed away during the negotiations.
Saturday offer “a special thanks to Myra Kraft who, even in her weakest moment, allowed Mr. Kraft to come and fight this out. And without him, this deal does not get done. I don’t want to be climactic in any way, but he is a man who helped us save football.” He then embraced Bob Kraft in a moment that helped both sides transcend the partisan bickering of the lockout, and helped return the focus to the men that play the game, and the men that bring that game to us.
Saturday is a great player, a great leader and one of the classiest men in football. See the video below of that memorable moment:
