Welcome to the CoFL, Milwaukee: Silverbacks Join the League With Gilbert Brown on the Sideline
The Continental Football League is heading to Milwaukee. On Friday morning, Nov. 6, the CoFL pulled the curtain back on its newest club, the Milwaukee Silverbacks, a professional outdoor football team set to kick off in 2027. SA Snap Count is glad to welcome them to the league.
Summer football comes to Milwaukee
The Silverbacks are the next professional outdoor football club and a member of the Continental Football League. The club promises family-friendly game days, local players and real coaching, under the banner “Built Different. Built Here.” and the pitch that “Milwaukee is a football town. Now summer football has a home here.”
Milwaukee is slated for the CoFL’s North Division for the 2027 season.
A Packers legend on the sideline
The headline hire is a familiar face for Wisconsin football fans. The Silverback’s first head coach is Gilbert Brown, a “Super Bowl champion and longtime Green Bay defensive lineman” who “brings championship standards to the Silverbacks sideline.” The CoFL celebrated the hire minutes after the reveal.
General manager Darius Jenkins will run the front office, leading day-to-day operations and building the Silverbacks’ front office from the ground up.
Who is Gilbert Brown?
Brown, nicknamed “The Gravedigger” for his celebratory dance after big tackles, played nose tackle for the Green Bay Packers from 1993 to 2003. A Detroit native who starred at Kansas, he was a 1993 third-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings before the Packers claimed him after he was waived in camp. In 125 games with Green Bay (103 starts), he recorded 292 tackles and seven sacks and played in 15 playoff games.
His best season came in 1996, when he started all 16 games on a Packers defense that allowed a league-record-low 19 touchdowns, and Green Bay won Super Bowl XXXI. He was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 2008.
The Silverbacks are not his first sideline job. Brown has previously been head coach of the Milwaukee Bonecrushers (2008), the expansion La Crosse Spartans of the Indoor Football League, and the Green Bay Chill.
Darius Jenkins and a Packers-heavy staff
Public information on Jenkins’s background is limited. He was introduced as general manager at Friday’s press conference at Kelly’s Bleachers in Milwaukee. According to Urban Milwaukee, the team still hasn’t announced a home venue. “We are talking to different venues, we are talking to different owners and investors,” Jenkins said.
Urban Milwaukee also reported that the team’s name pays tribute to Samson, the famous silverback gorilla at the Milwaukee County Zoo. The same report says former Packers wide receiver Andre Rison will be offensive coordinator and former Packers linebacker and defensive end Keith McKenzie will be defensive coordinator. “We’ve got Green Bay Packer blood all throughout this team,” Brown said. Lance Allan also reported the hires:
Become a Founding Silverback
The club is already signing up fans as “Founding Silverbacks,” who it says will be first to know about season tickets, tryouts and the home opener. Sign up at milwaukeesilverbacks.com and follow the team on X at @MKEsilverbacks.
Welcome to the league
Milwaukee joins a league whose reigning champions are the 2026 CoFL champion San Antonio Toros. From San Antonio: welcome to the CoFL, Milwaukee. See you in 2027.
Sources: Milwaukee Silverbacks; CoFL on X (reveal, Gilbert Brown).
Additional sources: Wikipedia (Gilbert Brown); Urban Milwaukee; Lance Allan on X; Michael Lathrop on X.
Follow SA Snap Count on X: https://x.com/SASnapcount210