By Jimmy Carlton Sportswriter Published Jul 24, 2018 at 10:33 AM

The Packers on Tuesday announced that Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Green Bay receiver James Lofton will join the Packers Television Network broadcast team as a color analyst for the preseason. 

Lofton, who played 16 seasons in the NFL, including nine with Green Bay, will partner with Kevin Harlan in the preseason television booth.

The Packers’ 1978 first-round draft pick was an analyst for Sunday Night Football on Westwood One from 2009 to '16 before joining CBS Sports in 2017 as an analyst for the NFL on CBS. Lofton also spent time during his broadcast career with CNN and NBC Sports. 

The Packers’ preseason kicks off at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 9, against the Tennessee Titans. Locally, the Packers Television Network is led by TODAY’S TMJ4 (WTMJ-TV), which provides year-round programming, in addition to preseason games.

Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.

After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.

Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.