KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Frank Winters is poised to take his place among some of the greatest names in pro football history tonight in Green Bay.

Bart Starr. Paul Hornung. Vince Lombardi. Reggie White. Jan Stenerud . Even a couple of Kansas City guys, Lynn Dickey and Paul Coffman.

And, yes, Winters, a resident of Overland Park, will be presented to the Packers Hall of Fame by none other than Brett Favre, whose status as quarterback for the storied franchise is the hottest drama of the NFL summer.

"He will be the presenter unless something drastically changes," Winters said by phone from Green Bay, where he will be inducted along with former Kansas defensive tackle Gilbert Brown. "He's reiterated to me that he'll be there."

Winters, who spent 1990-91 with the Chiefs as a long-snapper and backup center/guard before joining the Packers in 1992 as a Plan B free agent, exchanged more snaps with Favre than any other center.

Winters was Green Bay's starting center for every game during 1993-2000, including two Super Bowls, winning one title. Nicknamed "Bag of Donuts," he started 141 of a possible career 156 games with the Packers and was selected to the Pro Bowl in 1996.

"It's a great honor," said Winters, 44. "There are some great venues in the NFL with some great fans, but until you see the locker room and walk down the hallway and see pictures of Curly Lambeau and Bart Starr and Vince Lombardi and all the great Packers and all the championships, and the way the fans treat you and respect you, it's a special feeling."

Winters roomed with Favre for 11 years and developed a friendship that transcended the football field.

Winters was there for Favre in 1996 when Favre underwent treatment for his addiction to painkillers at Menninger Clinic in Topeka. Favre was there for Winters when Winters' brother, John, died of a heart ailment in 1997 a few days after the Packers beat Carolina in the NFC championship game and qualified for Super Bowl XXXI.

"We've been through the good times and the bad times," Winters said. "We did a lot of things in the offseason together, we traveled together ... our kids grew up together.

"I asked Brett to present me before all this came up. He's the one guy I played with longer than anybody in my career. I've never looked at him as Brett Favre the legend. I still look at him as a friend."

Despite their close relationship, Winters said he's unsure how Favre and the Packers will solve their dispute concerning Favre's desire to return to the club or be released after he announced his retirement last March.

"I don't know what the Packers are thinking or what Brett and his agent are thinking," Winters said, "but hopefully they can work out."

Before signing with Green Bay, Winters started six games at left guard for the Chiefs in 1990 and backed up Dave Szott and center Tim Grunhard in 1991. When the Chiefs did not protect him in 1992, he moved on to Green Bay.

"They drafted Szott and Grunhard, and they both came from bigger schools, and they were both great players who had great careers," Winters said of his time with the Chiefs. "They put a tag on you. I was a long snapper and never was given much of a chance, coming from a small school and being a low-round draft choice.

"That's part of the business. I had an opportunity to play somewhere else, and things kind of fell into place. You can look back on it now and you wouldn't trade it for the world."

Although Winters played 11 seasons with Green Bay, he and his wife, Alita, maintained their offseason home in Johnson County, and he is a partner in Frankie and Johnny's, a bar in Belton. The couple's two daughters, Aubre, 19, and Alexa, 18, attend the University of Arizona and are graduates of Blue Valley North, where Winters helped out as an assistant football coach when they were in high school.

"My first five years in the NFL, I was with four different teams, and it's tough," said Winters, who entered the NFL as a 10th-round draft choice from Western Illinois by Cleveland in 1987 and went to the Giants as a Plan B free agent in 1989 before following the same path to Kansas City in 1990 .

"You have to make a base somewhere. We felt Kansas City was a great place at the time. We've grown to like it there, and we've been there ever since. We'd go to Green Bay for six months and then go back to Kansas City."

Grunhard, a fixture in the Chiefs' offensive line for 11 years, had nothing but admiration for Winters' induction in the Packers' shrine.

"I'm thrilled for Frank, he really deserves it," Grunhard said. "We used to call him the Plan B Kid. ... He came into his own when he went to Green Bay, got to play with one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, and because of the national exposure Brett Favre got, he really became a cult hero in Green Bay."