GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -Frank Walker is a dervish in the Packers’ locker room, bouncing from player to player, disrupting backgammon games and needling fellow defensive backs about losing weight.
The ebullient Walker is a giver, too. He sent everyone on the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants’ staffs a small Christmas gift. His cards, signed “Merry Christmas, Frank Walker 41,” included a crisp $1 bill.
“Crisp, very crisp,” Walker said.
Why the small token of gratitude?
“It was just a little something to keep everybody on their toes and let them know we wanted them to have a Merry Christmas,” said Walker, the Packers’ only free-agent signing this offseason.
Walker, who sent about 300 cards, said he told people at a recent Christmas party “not to spend it all in one place.”
“That’s a little tax or something, get a half-a-gallon of gas or something,” Walker said.
But gas is hovering around $3 a gallon in Green Bay.
“Maybe a third, that’s good enough,” Walker joked.
Many Packers staff members said they appreciated the funny gesture that’s in step with Walker’s personality.
He often sports a pair of insulated brown coveralls that a Wisconsin dairy farmer would wear and keeps the team loose in weekly preparation.
“That’s my guy,” fellow cornerback Tramon Williams said. “He just keeps a smile on everybody’s face around the locker room, coaching staff, he’s got a good feel for us all.”
For all of Walker’s wacky antics, he’s also got a serious side.
After practice Friday, Walker, Williams, safety Atari Bigby and cornerback Will Blackmon were scheduled to ring a bell at a local mall to raise money for the Salvation Army.
Walker, a sixth-round pick out of Tuskegee in 2003, played his first four seasons with the Giants, where he was used mostly on special teams after the staff there felt at times he was too aggressive in pass coverage.
Walker signed a one-year deal with the Packers this season with incentives that could allow him to make nearly $1.5 million. He has played in 10 games despite needing arthroscopic surgery on his knee in October and has been in the mix for the nickel and dime cornerback roles along with Jarrett Bush, Williams and Blackmon.
Notes: T Chad Clifton (shoulder), G Junius Coston (knee), CB Al Harris (heel), LB Brady Poppinga (illness), WR Koren Robinson (knee) and T Mark Tauscher (ankle) were all taken off Friday’s injury report. S Aaron Rouse (shoulder) and CB Charles Woodson (toe) are probable; LB Tracy White (ankle), CB Jarrett Bush (calf), DT Ryan Pickett (groin) and TE Bubba Franks (knee) are questionable; QB Aaron Rodgers (hamstring) is doubtful; and FB Korey Hall (hip) is out for Sunday’s game against the Bears.
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