You Can If You Will: The Jerry Kramer Story

It’s taken over two years, but the documentary highlighting the amazing life of Jerry Kramer is finished. There have been some bumps and hurdles over that time, including the COVID-19 pandemic, but the film is done and is already getting epic reviews from those who have seen it.

I was honored to take part in this great undertaking as a supervising producer after being introduced to award-winning filmmaker Glenn Aveni, who directed and helped write this documentary.

The people who add their commentary in the film are a Who’s Who list of prominent people. For instance, Bart Starr Jr., Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers all add some insightful discussion about Jerry. We came close to adding two more very significant voices to this group. Glenn and I had set up an interview with both Bart Starr and Zeke Bratkowski at Zeke’s home in Florida’s panhandle in 2019. Unfortunately, Bart’s health situation worsened and he passed away before we could do the interview. About six months later, his best friend Zeke also passed away.

Plus there are many other legendary sports icons in this movie. People like the late, great Paul Hornung. Other teammates of Jerry’s who add their commentary in the film include Hall of Famer Dave Robinson, as well as Boyd Dowler, Carroll Dale, Chuck Mercein, Donny Anderson, Don Horn and Jim Grabowski. Other former Green Bay greats also add some great analysis about Jerry, which include stars like Gilbert Brown and Hall of Famer James Lofton.

The president of the Packers, Mark Murphy, also lends his voice in this film. As does the former general manager of the team, Ron Wolf.

Also in the documentary is David Baker, the president and executive director for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The two men who made the presentations for Jerry to all of the voters for the Hall of Fame are also in this film. They are Rick Gosselin and Pete Dougherty. 

There was nobody more important in Jerry’s literary career than his very good friend Dick Schaap. That part of Jerry’s life, as well as some other excellent assessment about Jerry was added by Jeremy Schaap, Dick’s son. Jeremy is named after Jerry, plus Jerry is the godfather of Jeremy.

Plus there a number of Pro Football Hall of Fame members who also add some insightful recognition about Jerry. This includes Franco Harris, Tom Mack, Joe Delamielleure, “Mean” Joe Green, Bill Polian and Robert Brazile. Also in the documentary is the vice president of the Chicago Bears, Brian McCaskey.

In addition, five of Jerry’s children…Tony, Diana, Dan, Alicia and Matt, speak of their admiration for their father. Jerry’s sister Carol also shares some nice memories about their childhood.

Three of the executive producers of the film, Herb Kohler, Lonnie Stephenson and Kenny Hansmire, also add some commentary in the documentary.

Jerry was also able to share some great memories with some of his buddies from Sandpoint High School.

I talked to Aveni about the film recently and he was very thankful for all the help he received along the way.

“The whole film has been a pleasurable experience,” Aveni said. “We have had tremendous support. First and foremost, the Green Bay Packers. The Packers have been outstanding in wanting to be involved with us, from Mark Murphy on down, including his whole team and also Craig Benzel (vice president of sales and business development) who have been very supportive. Then inevitably, they decided they would help in distribution for us.”

“They will be handling the digital streaming on their platform for the feature-like version and it will be there exclusively. They are also going to handle sales of digital downloads, physical DVDs and Blu-Ray copies at the Packers Pro Shop at Lambeau.”

The film goes back to Jerry’s childhood growing up in Sandpoint, Idaho. It captures Jerry’s time in high school and also at the University of Idaho. Then there was the 11 wonderful years Jerry spent in Green Bay playing under Vince Lombardi. Jerry was part of a team which won five NFL championships in seven years, which included the first two Super Bowls. Plus, the Packers won three straight NFL titles (1965, 1966 & 1967), which is something that has never been duplicated in the playoff era of the NFL which started in 1933.

The signature moment of the time under Coach Lombardi was the victory in the “Ice Bowl”, aka the 1967 NFL title game. That game included the signature drive in the Lombardi era, as well as the signature play, Starr’s quarterback sneak. Jerry played a big role in all those memorable moments.

That period was an unforgettable time in Jerry’s life. He was part of a great collection of individuals, who excelled on the playing field and also in life in general, thanks to the coaching and teaching of Coach Lombardi.

The documentary also delves into Jerry’s literary career and then the long 44-year journey that Jerry took on his way to enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

One day, Jerry can look back on all of the wonderful achievements he has accomplished in his life.

“I know I’ll go home and go fishing one of these days,” Jerry says in the film. “And sit out on the water and remember the days and some of the moments and some of the players and some of the guys. I think I just need to be alone and be out in the bushes somewhere and think about it for a while. But it’s been all I dreamed it could be and more. It’s just been more that I ever hoped it would be.”