Posted: Oct. 1, 2005
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There have been a variety reasons offered for why the 2005 Green Bay Packers have lost their first three games of the season.
The skills of their good veterans have been diminished by age.
Their offensive line is not clicking as a unit.
They didn't upgrade their defense in the off-season.
Turnovers.
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If you happen to think it takes smarts to play pro football, now there's another reason to throw into the mix, according to a story in the Friday edition of the Wall Street Journal.
How can this be said delicately without offending anyone's self-esteem?
The Packers are stupid. There's no other way to put it.
They have the lowest average Wonderlic score of any of the 32 teams in the National Football League, according to the Journal.
The Wonderlic Personnel Test is a standardized 12-minute 50-question problem-solving exam used by the league to evaluate players. Thousands of other businesses use it to measure applicants.
The players on the Packers' roster have an average Wonderlic score of 19.1, according to the Journal. They were just edged by the Arizona Cardinals, who averaged 19.2 and have started the season just like the Packers, 0-3. The Journal said 19.1 is the typical score for "hospital orderlies."
The Packers have nine players on their roster who scored below 14 on the test. The best score is 50.
A Packers spokesman could not be reached for comment.
"Averages are for players currently on each team's roster and for which scores are available - generally drafted players who entered the league in the past seven years," the Journal says over a grid ranking the teams from highest to lowest. The newspaper found the scores for 1,021 players, about 60% of the players in the league. Players who took the test before 1999 were not included in the ranking.
The St. Louis Rams have the smartest team, with a 24.6 average, followed by Oakland, Tennessee, Tampa Bay and San Diego.
Working up from the bottom, the dumbest teams are Green Bay, Arizona, Kansas City, Washington and Cincinnati.
The Journal points out that intellectual challenges beset not only the Packers but also "packers," who among occupation groups produce the lowest average Wonderlic score, 14.69.
It's a matter of debate about how smart you have to be to play pro football, even the quarterback position.
Common sense says being big, being fast, being athletic and not minding collisions are all higher values. No one cares about your Wonderlic score when you're holding the Vince Lombardi trophy above your head.
