Every year during training camp, Green Bay Packers fans keep an eye on undrafted free agents the team brings in to compete for a roster or practice squad spot. Pretty much every year, at least one sticks on the final 53.
One undrafted free agent from a very different era carved out an 11-year NFL career, playing eight of those seasons with the Packers. That free agent was St. Louis-born tight end Paul Coffman, who played in an era in which the team, shall we say, wasn’t enjoying much success. Nevertheless, for fans who remember the 1970s and ‘80s Packers teams (fondly or otherwise), Coffman remains a Packers legend.
As part of those pass-happy teams led by uber-accurate quarterback Lynn Dickey, Coffman amassed 322 receptions for 4,233 yards and 39 touchdown receptions – the latter two still standing as all-time highs for Packers tight ends.
Not surprisingly for an unheralded undrafted free agent from Kansas State who would go on to carve out a career that spanned more than a decade, Coffman’s work ethic and grit is what he is most often remembered for.
“And he did it with just decent athletic tools,” current Packers announcer and former teammate of Coffman Larry McCarren told Cliff Christl in 2018. “If you want to see a try-hard guy make good, you're looking at a picture of Paul Coffman."
“Concentration, effort,” added Coffman’s position coach later in his Green Bay career, Bob Schnelker. “He'd run a route just like I asked him to run it all the time. He'd work at it, do it in practice, do it in the game and come wide open."
"He worked his ass off,” is how receivers coach Lew Carpenter described Coffman to Christl.
During an 8-8 1983 season in which the team missed the playoffs by a season-ending field goal in a loss to the Chicago Bears, Coffman set career highs in receiving yards with 811 and touchdowns with 11. It was head coach Bart Starr’s final season as head coach of the Packers.
Coffman also caught five passes in a legendary 1985 Packers game known as the Snow Bowl. In that game, the offense racked up more than 500 total yards in a 21-0 rout of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with 14 inches of snow accumulating on the turf at Lambeau Field, and visibility greatly compromised.
In a recent interview, Coffman told The Green Bay Guy that he was mostly signed by the Packers because Starr was concerned there were only two tight ends on the training camp roster. Green Bay offered him a $1,000 signing bonus and a $24,000 contract, and Coffman wasn’t expected to even make the team. Oddly enough, Denver also was interested.
“They wanted to sign me as a linebacker,” Coffman said -- and they offered more money. So, Coffman called the Packers back and asked for a $2,500 signing bonus.
“The phone went completely silent, went dead, and I thought, ‘Oh crap, I’ve messed this up,’” he said.
The team offered him $1,500, and “I said ‘OK’ real quick because I didn’t want to make them mad.
He also told the Green Bay Guy that his “welcome to the NFL” moment came his rookie year in a game against the Minnesota Vikings. He ended up lining up opposite Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Marshall, one of the famed Purple People Eaters, who at that point was 41 and nearing the end of his career.
“They hike the ball, and Jim Marshall runs right over me and makes the tackle,” Coffman said. “We’re sitting in a meeting on Monday, and coach goes, ‘Coffman, what the hell are you thinking here?’ I didn’t want to say, ‘I’m thinking that’s Jim Marshall, he’s 41 years old and he’s got a gray beard.’”
Coffman would finish his career as a backup with two seasons as a Kansas City Chief and one as a Viking. His son Chase would later play for the Indianapolis Colts, while son Carson played arena league football, son Cameron currently plays quarterback for the University of Wyoming Cowboys, and daughter Camille plays volleyball at Wyoming.