ESPN MAGAZINE

A few days after Terrell Owens did not drop that pass in the end zone despite being hammered, gloom still hung in the air in the Packers locker room. Players were going through the motions of cleaning out their lockers, still stunned by the shocking last-second loss to the 49ers that had killed their season. And now what? Mike Holmgren, the super coach who had brought the Pack back to the Super Bowl, was leaving for Seattle.

Limping on a bum ankle desperately in need of surgery, LeRoy Butler made his way over to Brett Favre and plopped himself down on a stool. The fearless safety spoke like a frightened man. "We still have enough talent to go to the Super Bowl," he said. "Who's going to take care of us?"

At that very moment, GM Ron Wolf, the man who built the team for Holmgren, was sitting in his office and wondering the same thing. During Wolf's tenure, the Pack hasn't had a single losing season. Over the past four years, Green Bay was 48-16, had won back-to-back NFC championships and had gone to two Super Bowls, winning XXXI in 1997.

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider