Frank Mitchell Winters (born January 23, 1964) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

for the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The t ...

, and the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the th ...

Early life

Frank Mitchell Winters was born in

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58, ...

. He lived in Union City, and played football at Emerson High School."Frank Winters - Class of 2012"
, Hudson County Sports Hall of Fame. Accessed February 6, 2012. "A native of Hoboken, Winters is a former American football center in the National Football League for the Cleveland Browns (1987-88), New York Giants (1989), Kansas City Chiefs (1990-91), and the Green Bay Packers (1992-2002)."

Career

Winters played

Western Illinois University Western Illinois University (WIU) is a public university in Macomb, Illinois. It was founded in 1899 as Western Illinois State Normal School. As the normal school grew, it became Western Illinois State Teachers College. History Western Illin ...

and was drafted in the tenth round of the

1987 NFL Draft The 1987 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 28–29, 1987, at the Marriot M ...

. Winters was the Packers' starting center serving for eight straight seasons (1993–2000). He played in the Pro Bowl and also earned USA Today

All-Pro All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list t ...

honors in 1999. His nickname was "Frankie Baggadonuts" or "Old Bag of Donuts". On July 18, 2008, Winters was inducted into the

Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

. His ceremony was marked by heightened media interest because

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Brett Favre Brett Lorenzo Favre ( ; born October 10, 1969) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 seasons, primarily with the Green Bay Packers. Favre had 321 consecutive starts from 1992 to 201 ...

gave the induction speech amidst the developing saga regarding Favre's status with the Packers. On May 20, 2009, Winters got an internship with the Indianapolis Colts. He has part ownership in a popular Missouri bar and grill, Frankie & Johnny's.

References

1964 births Living people Sportspeople from Hoboken, New Jersey Sportspeople from Union City, New Jersey American football centers American football offensive guards Western Illinois Leathernecks football players Cleveland Browns players New York Giants players Players of American football from New Jersey Kansas City Chiefs players Green Bay Packers players National Conference Pro Bowl players {{offensive-lineman-1960s-stub