Donald Driver is ready for the NFL draft in April.
The 22-foot tall statue of one the Packers’ greatest draft successes located outside The Depot restaurant, across Dousman Street from Neville Public Museum, was repainted last week. Driver — the man, not the statue — is a Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame member who was chosen in the seventh round of 1999 NFL draft, the 213th of 253 selections. He played his entire 14-year career with the Packers.
Donald Driver the statue has had a more peripatetic career. Known as The Receiver for the first part of its life, the statue was located outside the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame on Lombardi Avenue in what is now the Resch Expo parking lot. Wearing the number 88 with “Packer” on the back of its jersey, it became homeless when the hall of fame was moved into the new Lambeau Field Atrium in 2003.
Steve Boyer of S.J. Boyer Construction, who did a number of projects in the Broadway District, spearheaded the move downtown. It was relocated to the Neville Public Museum grounds in 2003, where it stayed until it lost its place in 2005 to a 9/11 memorial. The memorial is gone, but the statue, which was moved across the street to what was then Titletown Brewery and now is The Depot, remains.
The freshly painted Donald Driver statue outside The Depot restaurant pictured on Sunday in Green Bay.
The statue was repainted in 2013 by Packers superfan Christopher Handler to honor Driver, who retired in 2012. Harvey Heise of Harv’s handyman service did the last two paint jobs.
“It’s nice to get him freshened up. He’s gorgeous when he’s done,” Heise said. He said the last touch-up was eight years ago.
Paint on the fiberglass statue was peeling. The football at the base of the statue is hollow and condensation built up on it, damaging the paint there. Also, it appeared that people were throwing rocks at it. There was a pile of stones at Driver’s feet, said Heise, who’s skills range from lay bricks to trimming trees to building garages to painting statues.
They drilled holes in the football to allow airflow to reduce condensation, and parts of the statue were patched and primed.
“There was a lot of scrapping to be done on there,” Heise said. “Especially the football.”
As big as the statue is, it still had challenging detail work, such as the stripes and numbers on the uniform, and especially the white parts of the gloves.
“I like the detail about it,” Heise said.
Harvey Heise repaints the Donald Driver statue Friday outside The Depot restaurant in Green Bay.