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Ex-Packers tight end Mark Chmura ruffled a lot of feathers with his proposed game plan for Green Bay when it faces the 49ers in the NFC divisional round on Saturday.
Chmura, who spent his entire seven-year NFL career with the Packers, explained that Green Bay could “dominate and intimate” the top-seeded 49ers with “a 15-yard penalty for a late hit” on their quarterback, Brock Purdy.
“The reason we won in [1995] when no one gave us a chance in San Francisco is because we intimidated them,” the 54-year-old Chmura, said on the “Jen, Gabe and Chewy” show on 94.5 ESPN Milwaukee.
“That’s why — you guys are going to think I’m crazy — a 15-yard penalty, and I don’t condone this, but I kind of do in the playoffs, a 15-yard penalty for a late hit on Brock Purdy is not a bad thing as long as it’s worth it.
“I’m just saying, this is the mindset you go into when it’s battle. It’s kind of the reverse of hockey. What don’t they do in hockey in the playoffs?… They don’t fight.”
“[In football]… sometimes a 15-yard penalty is worth it early in the game if you knock the living crap out of the guy.”
Some 49ers faithful, and even Packers fans, were left shocked over Churma’s comments.
“For the Niners fans out there that hear this: this guy is literally the only person on earth who thinks this,” one X user wrote.
“From a Packers fan to 9ers fans that are finding this: We don’t agree with this dude,” another wrote, adding that they’re “looking forward to clean game Saturday.”
Chmura stood by his comments on Thursday’s show and said he couldn’t care less about what 49ers fans think.
“Did you hear the word ‘injured’ at all in that clip?” Chmura, a member of the Packers Hall of Fame, said when his co-host, ESPN reporter Jen Lada, asked what he meant when he said, “sometimes a 15-yard penalty is worth it” early in the game.
“So what I meant by that, and I’m standing — if you think I’m walking it back San Francisco fans, you’re crazy,” he said.
“Sometimes a technical in basketball, even though the fans get frustrated, is a good thing. It gets you a call later down the line.
“I’ll go back to 1995 when we [the Packers] played them… We went in there and dominated them, intimidated them and that carried over for years… So we owned you.
“You know why I know we owned you and intimated you? Because Dallas did the same thing to us in the ’90s and we were intimidated by them… They need to get back to that in order to start flipping this thing around
“This is football. I’m not saying play dirty, but that’s part of it and that’s the formula to win — because Brock Purdy, as I look at it, is their weak link. He’s a hell of a player, but he’s shown when he gets flustered and he gets hit, he will turn the ball over.
“Why do you think I don’t have social media? I don’t give morons like that a voice.”
A sixth-round selection by the Packers (157th overall) out of Boston College in the 1992 NFL draft, Chmura went on to win a Super Bowl with Green Bay in 1997 and made the Pro Bowl three times.
The Packers (9-8) are the underdog heading into Saturday’s matchup against the 49ers (12-5), who are the betting favorites to win Super Bowl LVII.
The 49ers were knocked out of the playoffs last year when Purdy suffered torn UCL in his right elbow in a 31-7 loss to the Eagles in the NFC title game.
San Francisco will host Green Bay at 8:15 p.m. ET Saturday on Fox.
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