Trio Now Part of Packers’ Lore

The Green Bay Packers are Vince Lombardi and Bart Starr and Paul Hornung and Ray Nitschke and Brett Favre.

Now they are Ahman Green as well.

Green, a Packer running back, on Sunday broke the oldest team single-season rushing mark of another former Green Bay great, Jim Taylor.

Needing only 12 yards against the San Diego Chargers, Green rushed for 75 in 19 carries during a 38-21 Packer victory, giving him 1,538 for the season to surpass Taylor’s mark of 1,474 set in 1962.

“It lasted for a long time,� Green said. “I take my hat off to my O-linemen and all the guys blocking for me. They know who they are. I couldn’t have gotten here by myself.�

Taylor’s Packer record wasn’t the only one to fall Sunday.

Favre threw a touchdown pass for the 23rd consecutive game to break the franchise mark set by Cecil Isbell in 1941-42.

Kicker Ryan Longwell scored eight points to give him 826 for his career, three more than Don Hutson had during his Hall of Fame career.

Longwell definitely understood the significance of the milestone.

“With the storied history of this franchise, any time you break a record, it’s unbelievable,� Longwell said. “You’re breaking a record of one of the legends of the game.�

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Rich McKay’s days as general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers seem to be numbered, but he’ll probably have a place to land if he leaves.

Atlanta Falcon owner Arthur Blank has made it clear that McKay is his man and just this week the Buccaneers gave McKay permission to speak to other teams and walk away from the final four years of a contract that pays him $2.4 million a season.

Blank wanted McKay when he bought the Falcons two years ago, but at the time the Buccaneers wanted compensation for McKay. That stopped Blank and the position has remained vacant since.

“I wasn’t able to talk to Rich then, we’re able to talk to him now, so we’re going to pursue that,� Blank said. “He certainly is extremely talented as an NFL GM and we obviously have needs.�

McKay’s availability seems to stem from a personality conflict with Coach Jon Gruden, although Gruden denies any such issue exists.

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The Minnesota Vikings seem to be on the verge of imploding after another loss put them at 8-6 after they started the season 6-0.

The key play in their 13-10 loss to the Chicago Bears came when all-pro receiver Randy Moss had a potential touchdown ripped from his hands by rookie cornerback Charles Tillman.

Viking quarterback Daunte Culpepper wasn’t exactly supportive when asked about the play afterward.

“I guess I could have put it a little higher,� Culpepper said. “I think he [Moss] misjudged it a little bit. I think he jumped a little early.�

Moss declined to be interviewed.

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Atlanta quarterback Michael Vick had a 4.9 quarterback rating in the first half of a 38-7 loss to Indianapolis but didn’t have answers for his performance.

“It’s the worst game I ever had,� Vick said. “Why? I don’t know.�

Interim Coach Wade Phillips, though, was in a pass-the-buck mood after taking over for the fired Dan Reeves earlier this week.

“My worst fears came to being,� Phillips said. “Coach [Reeves] gets fired in the middle of the week and there’s a letdown.�

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Washington’s 27-0 loss to Dallas was the first shutout defeat for Coach Steve Spurrier since he was at Duke in 1987 -- 7-0 to Rutgers.

The Redskins also hadn’t been shut out at home in 10 years, the last one a 3-0 loss to the New York Jets.

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Times wire services contributed to this report.