It was called the Gilbertburger.

Two all-beef patties. Four -- count 'em Packers fans, four! -- slices of cheese. A whole tomato, lettuce, onions, mayonnaise, no pickles, on a bun and cut in half. (Just like your life expectancy, I suppose.) And while leading the Pack to back-to-back Super Bowls in 1996-97 as one of the NFL's premier run-stuffing defensive tackles, Gilbert Brown used to pop them in his mouth like Altoids.

Fans, teammates, media -- we all adored big, lovable, funny Gilbert Brown, the consummate "lunchpail" Packer if ever there was one. There were the outlandish size-64 suits and the 24-inch collars. There was the trademark Gravedigger dance that, some say, was just an impression of how Brown used to shovel food on his plate at a buffet.

I remember a Super Bowl media day when someone asked Brown how much he could bench press.

"What do you weigh?" he replied.

But last year, as Brown's weight went George Brett on him -- above 400 well into the fall -- his body broke down and, just as the Vikings had done in 1993, the Packers cut him loose.

Desperate and depressed, Brown put a few things in his truck and drove from Green Bay to a friend's house in Lawrence, Kan. When Fred Roll, Brown's longtime buddy and the Jayhawks' strength and conditioning coach, came home Thanksgiving night he found Brown sitting on his front porch.

Roll suggested a walk. Brown shuffled along slowly for a couple hundred yards before he came to a sudden halt. His back was killing him. His knee was throbbing. He was out of breath and bent over in pain. "He had hit rock bottom," says Roll. "Gilbert was at a very unhealthy place. Right then and there he had to make a tremendous commitment."

Over the next eight months, Brown rededicated himself to getting back with the Pack. "I never felt like I might quit the program because for me right then it was do or die," says Brown. "Do or die ... literally."

He moved into Roll's spartan attic, which oftentimes had no heat. For motivation Brown would watch the Packers play on TV while fighting back the tears. "If I didn't love this game and miss my teammates so much, I never would have been able to do this," says Brown, 30.

By correcting his diet, changing his habits and slowly working on his cardiovascular conditioning, Brown eventually got his weight down to 335 pounds. "If man is measured by what happens when he is off by himself," says Packers DT Santana Dotson, "then doesn't that speak volumes about Gilbert, who did all that work when the cameras were off and no one was watching?"

There were minor setbacks, of course. One time Roll found several empty bags of Doritos in Brown's truck. They turned out to be old. "I don't eat that s--- anymore," Brown replied. "Man, do you understand that I don't ever want to be seen like that or feel like that ever again?"

When Brown got down to 360, Roll let him have some fried food. After a few more weeks Roll noticed Brown's explosive moves, and his old personality, returning. "After a while the old Gilbert started to come back," says Roll. "I couldn't keep him away from the mirrors in the weight room, he was so freakin' enamored with himself."

As were the Packers, who re-signed him before camp and had such renewed faith in Brown they cut free-agent tackle Russell Maryland. "We all think of Gilbert as the consummate Packer," says Dotson, Brown's close friend. "So it just feels right having him back. Words cannot describe what Gilbert brings to this team and this defense. He has such a big heart and we all feed off that and our defense predicates everything we do around him."

On Sunday as the Pack moved to 3-0 by pounding the Carolina Panthers (who are as flimsy as their field), Green Bay took on a retro feel. There was Brett Favre connecting on everything he threw, including stiff arms. There was Ahman Green rushing for 326 yards in his first three starts. And there was a svelte Gilbert Brown beaming on the sidelines, battling double-teams and wrapping up tailbacks with the kind of gusto he used to reserve for Gilbertburgers.

"All that stuff I did before was good for me at the time," Brown said after the game. "But this right now is much better. I feel a lot healthier and I feel a lot better about myself as a person. To work so hard to be able to be a part of what this team is doing right now, it just feels tremendous."

It's early, but something just feels right in Green Bay. Favre, and others, have described the atmosphere inside the locker room at Lambeau Field as collegial. Ya know, what I love about the NFL is that it may be a multi-billion-dollar business, but you still can't buy the most important ingredient for winning: team chemistry. Just ask Daniel Snyder.

"Gilbert has a tremendous amount of confidence and energy and pride right now," says Roll. "You can feel it. You can see it. Gilbert just exudes it."

And now -- thanks in large part to a much smaller Brown -- so do the Packers.

Gilbertsalad anyone?

David Fleming is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at flemfile@aol.com.