The Packers aren’t exactly an expansion team, but they certainly expanded their weaponry by adding two castoffs this season from the Jacksonville Jaguars, who apparently have a surplus of talent.
The signing of punt returner Desmond Howard for $300,000 and no bonus as a free agent during the off-season proved a master stroke by General Manager Ron Wolf and coach Mike Holmgren, who remembered how much they liked the former Heisman Trophy winner coming out of Michigan.
The signing of receiver Andre Rison cost only $294,115, the final five weeks of his million-dollar salary after the Jaguars cut him.
In Saturday’s 35-14 playoff victory against the 49ers, Howard had two returns for 117 yards and a touchdown, plus a fair catch that was just as big a play in this game of field position. Rison scored the touchdown that made it 14-0 in the first quarter.
Howard said the 49ers told him they were trying to kick away from him.
“The wind took it and you can’t fight nature,” said Howard, who struck a brief Heisman Trophy pose before jumping into the stands after his 71-yard score. “They were very good returnable kicks. I haven’t felt like this since Michigan.”
A failure as a receiver for the Redskins and only average as a return man for the Jaguars, Howard made the Packers with returns during the exhibition season, then set an NFL record for most punt-return yards in a season with 875 and most touchdowns with three.
“What did Desmond Howard do today he hasn’t done all season?” asked teammate Sean Jones. “Now tell me why the guy didn’t make All-Pro. Absurd.”
“I knew I had the talent. This was just the best opportunity to let it shine,” Howard said, praising special-teams coach Nolan Cromwell and his blockers. Packers Tyrone Williams and Chris Hayes could have been arrested for the mugging they put on 49ers cover man Curtis Buckley.
“If I catch it clean, we feel we can score,” Howard said. “It’s amazing to watch our guys play and then watch opponents. It’s like night and day. It’s like watching an opposing team’s quarterback and then watching Brett Favre.”
Howard looked like Superman, then risked it all by changing capes and emerging late from his phone booth for the second-half kickoff.
“I was soaking wet and couldn’t stop shivering. I wouldn’t have been effective,” Howard said.
Met by Holmgren after the 49ers recovered the botched second-half kickoff, Howard asked: “We started the game?”
“Yeah,” Holmgren said at game’s end, “I was very angry. It kept flashing in my mind those two great plays he made. It was so bizarre I couldn’t believe it.”
Defensive end Reggie White kidded Favre about giving Howard part of his impending new contract “to keep Desmond here.” Howard, signed only for one year, said, “That stuff will take care of itself.”
Howard was greeted afterward by 49ers quarterback Elvis Grbac, a teammate in high school in Cleveland and at Michigan.
Related Howard: “He told me, `I’ve got my (Super Bowl) ring. Go ahead and get yours. There’s nothing to stop you.’ “
