Eddie Lee Ivery emerged from Georgia Tech University in 1979 with so much promise that the Green Bay Packers selected him with the 15th overall pick.
Unfortunately, his promising career met with a hiccup just three carries into his NFL career in the ’79 season-opener against the Chicago Bears with a knee injury. He would go on to play eight seasons with the Packers, finishing as the team’s No. 15 all-time leading rusher, but that first injury left fans with a perpetual whisper of “what if?” on their lips.
As a young Packers fan, I loved Ivery’s rhythmic-sounding name – I loved pulling his football cards out of freshly opened packs as a kid. And if you stop and think about it, the name almost sounds like he should have been a blues pianist.
But Ivery had the size and the burst you want from a stud running back. Usually in a platoon, Ivery never posted a 1,000-yard season, but after returning from his initial injury, he titillated during the 1980 season when he ran for 831 yards on 202 carries with three touchdowns and caught 50 passes for 481 yards and a receiving touchdown. It would turn out to be his best season as a pro.
And while he racked up 2,933 rushing yards plus 1,612 receiving yards and 30 total touchdowns in the NFL, it was Ivery’s injuries that seemed to shadow him.
Ivery underwent surgery to repair his torn ACL, rehabbed and worked his hardest to realize that 1980 season, which restored hope to the Green Bay fan base. And then in 1981, and once again in a season-opening game against the Bears at Soldier Field, Ivery’s left knee again failed him. He had posted 14 carries in the game before he was off to rehab yet again.
After this injury, Ivery began using alcohol and drugs to help quell the pain. While he bounced back with a 10-touchdown season in 1982, he gradually played less and less and became less effective. Injuries and addiction were holding him back. In fact, Ivery believes he almost lost his life to his addiction. And he gives a lot of credit to Packers legend Bart Starr, who coached Ivery for most of his pro career.
In 1983, after the Packers made the playoffs the previous season, Ivery failed a drug test. Starr called his running back into his office for a sit-down.
“He asked me, was I OK,” Ivery told Wayne Larivee. “It was almost like had tears in his eyes, because he knew that I was not being honest with him. I said, ‘Yes sir, I’m doing good.’ And then as we started talking – I think I had gotten tired of playing games with myself and playing games with the Green Bay Packers organization. … I said, ‘Coach Starr, please help me. … He chose to help.”
That’s when Ivery began to get clean and was able to continue his career until 1986. He said, “Coach Starr saved my life.”
Ivery would have relapses in his sobriety over the years. He claims he turned his back on his faith, and he suffered financially. But he ultimately prevailed in his fight, got his degree and went into coaching.
“My life went downhill after my career,” he told Packer.com several years ago. “One thing football taught me is when you get knocked down, keep fighting. When you are dealing with drugs and alcohol, no one else can get your life back in order. I was a Christian man and I felt like I turned my back on it. I ended up finally turning it around.”
After his stellar college career as a Yellow Jacket – he garnered 11 first-place votes for the Heisman Trophy his junior season, and as a senior would post an incredible 356-yard rushing game – injuries may have derailed what looked to have the makings of a Hall of Fame career.
“What could have been,” Ivery Larivee. “But I knew this: I knew that when I got on that football field, I gave it all I had.”