GREEN BAY, Wis. – Bryan Bulaga, the right tackle of the Green Bay Packers’ Super Bowl championship team in 2010, retired as a member of the Packers on Friday.

Bulaga was the Packers’ first-round pick in 2010. The man who drafted him out of the University of Iowa, the late Ted Thompson, led off Bulaga’s 10 minutes of thank-yous.

“Obviously, start right away with Ted Thompson,” Bulaga said. “Took a gamble on a short-armed, small-handed guy from Iowa. Probably not the greatest 40 time and stuff like that. But selected me in the first round and I will be forever grateful for that.”

The Packers will be forever grateful, too. When veteran Mark Tauscher went down in the fourth game of the 2010 season, Bulaga stepped into the lineup. Only injuries knocked him out of the starting lineup over the next decade.

He started the final 12 games of his rookie season plus all four playoff games as the Packers beat the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV.

“I didn’t really realize what was happening until we beat the Eagles in that first-round playoff game,” Bulaga said. “I remember, we’re sitting on the bench and Cliffy [left tackle Chad Clifton] looked at me, he was like, ‘This kind of stuff doesn’t happen every year, so just start enjoying this and taking in this playoff run.

“It was a surreal kind of feeling. At the time, I was just trying to stay above water as a rookie. I’m blocking for Aaron Rodgers, I’m playing across the line full of veterans, I’m the youngest guy. I’m just trying to not get Aaron killed while playing a new position, and then making sure I don’t screw something up so then [Josh] Sitton’s mad.”

The Packers were road warriors. They held off Philadelphia, crushed Atlanta and escaped Chicago before toppling the Steelers for their fourth Super Bowl win.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Bryan Bulaga, the right tackle of the Green Bay Packers’ Super Bowl championship team in 2010, retired as a member of the Packers on Friday.

Bulaga was the Packers’ first-round pick in 2010. The man who drafted him out of the University of Iowa, the late Ted Thompson, led off Bulaga’s 10 minutes of thank-yous.

“Obviously, start right away with Ted Thompson,” Bulaga said. “Took a gamble on a short-armed, small-handed guy from Iowa. Probably not the greatest 40 time and stuff like that. But selected me in the first round and I will be forever grateful for that.”

The Packers will be forever grateful, too. When veteran Mark Tauscher went down in the fourth game of the 2010 season, Bulaga stepped into the lineup. Only injuries knocked him out of the starting lineup over the next decade.

He started the final 12 games of his rookie season plus all four playoff games as the Packers beat the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV.

“I didn’t really realize what was happening until we beat the Eagles in that first-round playoff game,” Bulaga said. “I remember, we’re sitting on the bench and Cliffy [left tackle Chad Clifton] looked at me, he was like, ‘This kind of stuff doesn’t happen every year, so just start enjoying this and taking in this playoff run.

“It was a surreal kind of feeling. At the time, I was just trying to stay above water as a rookie. I’m blocking for Aaron Rodgers, I’m playing across the line full of veterans, I’m the youngest guy. I’m just trying to not get Aaron killed while playing a new position, and then making sure I don’t screw something up so then [Josh] Sitton’s mad.”

The Packers were road warriors. They held off Philadelphia, crushed Atlanta and escaped Chicago before toppling the Steelers for their fourth Super Bowl win.