'Damn, I hate Chicago!' On Javon Bullard, the Green Bay Packers & the dire need for a killer instinct
Story link inside. The Packers need a closer. "Bull" is much obliged.
Good evening! Welcome, new readers. Hello, OGs. A pleasure to have you all here in your Go Long world.
We’ve got a fresh feature live at the site right now. I traveled to Georgia to hang out with the “villain,” the “bad guy,” the third-year defensive back who’s aiming to be everything these Green Bay Packers have desperately lacked for years: the dagger.
Javon Bullard grew up bobbing ‘n weaving away from bullets in Milledgeville. He idolized Tyrann Mathieu, the “Honey Badger.” And he can pinpoint two crucial turning points in his football life — the hit on Marvin Harrison Jr. in the CFP semifinals and the moment he decided not to give a bleep in the pros.
After the Packers’ meltdown in the playoffs, I was struck by Bullard’s honesty so we trekked on south to learn more.
He didn’t hold back then. He ratchets it up 100 levels in our conversation.
Miss the story? Bang it right here to read:
Also, I’ll record a Substack Live Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m. (EST) inside the Substack app to answer questions you have on Bullard, the Packers, anything at all:
A handful of quotes from Bullard in our chat are below.
He’s most certainly not curling up in the fetal position.
As we wrote, there are coaches (and PR staffs) who hear language like this and call a player into the principal’s office for a tisk-tisk lecture. Then, there are coaches who cheer it on. Coaches who take these words, plaster them up on a projector screen and compel everyone on the roster to think exactly like “Bull.”
It’s high time the Packers morphed into the latter.
Thank you for reading and subscribing, all.
“We need that instinct to kill motherfuckers’ hope. Like, ‘No. Not today. Not tomorrow. Y’all through. We finna beat y’all ass.’ I don’t think we’ve got that as a team yet. But we got another year to prove it.”
“I don’t want to live a life of regret. Like, ‘Damn, I should’ve done that.’ Hell nah. Go 110 percent in whatever the hell you’re doing.”
“Damn, I hate Chicago! It’s like real hate. I can’t stand Chicago. I don’t know what the hell it is. I don’t like the team. I don’t like their coach. I don’t like shit about Chicago. Except for their food. I do love their food. But other than that, man? Damn Chicago.”
“They got two little wins last year. But don’t forget who the big brother is. We’re still big brother. They got a long way to go before they can try to shit on us. But we got to show them, too. We can’t just talk that shit. We’ve got to be about it. So it’s going to be hell next year, man. ... It’s going to be hell.”
“We love it. We embrace that. Shit, I can’t wait. Everybody says every game is the same, but it’s not. I’m keeping it 100. Every game is not the same. You might prepare the same way for every game, but the feeling? It’s going to be different. You get a different tingle in your body. When certain things happen — when we play Chicago? — the shit is there. The energy’s there. Your whole damn body vibrates, man.”
“You go to a party? Shit. You hope it don’t get shot up. Ask anybody in there. They’ll probably say the same thing. ... I’m no stranger to danger.”
“Play within the rules of the game. But play with every fucking bone in your body. Don’t settle for nothing. ... Attack it.”
“Your defense is going to win you everything. I want the Packers to understand that. Hell, I want the whole league to understand that you build around that defense. When you’ve got so many guys that really take pride in what they doing — really want to dominate — the sky’s the limit. That’s the recipe for all 32 teams. Get you some dogs that really don’t give a fuck.”
“I almost got kicked out of practice for being overly aggressive. You definitely play within the rules of the game, and you want to be a good teammate. But don’t ever lose that competitor. I’m all for erring on the line. I want to be on that damn line. You’ve got to tell me to, ‘Hey Bull, chill the hell out.’ Rather than I’m not doing shit, I’m not going hard enough, and you’re like, ‘Damn, c’mon Bull.’ I’d rather my dog be aggressive than my dog be a slouch.”
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Bob McGinn’s 42nd draft series is also running. Here are the links so far.
Quarterbacks are live Tuesday AM.
I'm still trying to visualize the kalamari problem.
So Bullard was criticized his first year for being slow to react. I don't recall too many compliments about how hard he hit but I think he moved around a lot. Maybe in the second year he played more instinctively. Later in year 2 I think Aikman called him a potential star. Bob wasn't as high on his play as I recall. Another year with Evan Williams and the all-pro safety should make the unit pretty tight.