The Packers have a long history of great quarterbacks (and passers who played other positions before the QB position as we know it today existed) – all the way from Red Dunn and Curly Lambeau in the 1920s through Arnie Herber and Cecil Isbell in the 1930s and 1940s, Bart Starr in the 60s and Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers in the modern era.
Much has been written about these great players and their place in Packers and NFL history, so for the time being I’m not going to add to those hundreds of thousands of words and instead, I’m going to talk about some of the less well known quarterbacks who have worn the Green and Gold (or in some cases nearly did) and a share a little of their stories.
Sometimes, fans of teams wonder whether they have a real quarterback or just a guy who’s acting back there. But did you know that the Packers really did have an actor at quarterback?
Actually two.
Ever heard of Alan Autry or Carlos Brown? If not, don’t worry, you’re most likely one of a very large majority. They are actually the same person, but that probably doesn’t help! Selected by the Packers in the 12th round of the 1975 NFL draft, Carlos Brown (using his mother’s maiden name) started 3 games for Green Bay in 1976, taking over from the injured Lynn Dickey. But Brown was on the losing side of the ledger in all 3 of those games - which turned out to be the last action of his very short-lived NFL career. He ended his Packers career with 3 passing touchdowns, 6 interceptions and a completion percentage of just 37.2%. Autry/Brown went on to the CFL for a short-while where he made another Packers quarterback connection – backing up former Packers QB Jerry Tagge.
Perhaps more successfully (and now known as Alan Autry), he went on to have a distinguished acting career appearing on TV shows such as In the Heat of the Night (1988-95) and Grace Under Fire (1995-96) and having guest appearances in numerous shows including Hart of Dixie, The A-Team and The Dukes of Hazzard. Autry also appeared in more than 20 feature films (including football movie North Dallas Forty) and, adding a third string to his bow, was later elected mayor of Fresno in California for 2 terms. Autry is a cousin of actor and country music great Gene Autry.
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