Johnny Blood makes his mark

Note: Between now and the end of June, I am devoting all of my Packers'-related writing time to either podcast prep or my book, so for bonus content during that stretch, I'm going to be sharing some of the chapters I finish. Here's one of the most recent I've finished.

October 20, 1929

The 1929 Packers didn’t win all their games, but they never lost.

That distinction is a technicality, but it doesn’t make it any less true, and it lends a bit of mystery and intrigue to one of the great units in Packers history. That season, they’d bring home the first championship in team history thanks in large part to a cast of characters that included some of the biggest and brightest names in team history.

And among them was John Victor McNally, better known as Johnny Blood.

His given name is just fine for a professional athlete. There are surely many respectable men by the name of John McNally out there, and likely even a Johnny McNally or two. But as far as his time with the Packers goes, his name was only ever Johnny Blood. That distinction is a technicality, but it doesn’t make it any less true, and it lends a bit of mystery and intrigue to one of the most mysterious and intriguing players in Packers history.

Denis Gullickson dubbed Blood the “Vagabond Halfback” in his biography about the Packers’ great back. If you think that name sounds a bit derogatory (though Blood was certainly a man of the world in every sense of the term), perhaps “itinerant” is a better word, because Blood certainly was that. In his long and storied football career, McNally lined up for five NFL teams and a number of semipro outfits, too. And wherever he went, he brought his movie star looks and dazzling speed to the field.