AtlPackFan
11-15-2007, 09:38 AM
It is possible that the biggest threat to the continued success of the Green Bay Packers is being played out before our eyes. If I missed a thread on this subject, I apologize...I don't post often. But this has me more concerned than anything TT has done or hasn't done.
For any of you who have lived through the last years of the Dominic Olejniczak and all the Robert Parins years (think Bengston through Infante), you will understand. For those who haven't, pray that this plays out correctly.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=685957
One of the good things about the Green Bay Packers is their singular public structure.
It is also one of the bad.
Good, because there is no Jerry Jones, no Al Davis and no Bill Bidwell, no goofy owner to run amok, embarrass the constituency, move the team or get the Michael Jackson cosmetic treatment.
Bad, because sometimes you need a focal point for discontent when things go wrong. As convenient targets, such men have been placed on this earth for that express purpose.
Green Bay is the franchise that should not exist. The Packers are the only non-profit, community-owned big-league sports team in the country. The town is not big enough to support indoor lacrosse, yet the Packers are among the NFL's most valuable enterprises.
It is, for the most part, a beautiful thing when the Packers' exclusive system is allowed to work.
It works when the football people are allowed to make all the football decisions. Curly Lambeau. Vince Lombardi. Ron Wolf. Let those men call the football shots, and championships happen. Let the board of directors get all power-mad and overly involved, and it goes bad, Scooter McLean bad.
You can only hope that the executive committee seeking Bob Harlan's successor is paying attention to the team's undeniable history.
In the Sunday Journal Sentinel, Tom Silverstein reported that Harlan is largely being excluded from the hiring process for the next CEO/president. That is a huge mistake on several levels.
One is the fear that the executive committee is pulling an Al Haig in trying to assert who's really in charge of the Packers. The fear is that the committee might appoint a CEO without a solid football background because a big-city hiring firm says it is the corporate thing to do. And that would be a disaster, for it would not be the Green Bay Way.
Harlan picked Ted Thompson. Thompson picked Mike McCarthy. The Packers, as you've noticed, have something very good going with McCarthy and Thompson. They could be 10-1 and playing for home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs when they go to Dallas on Nov. 29.
Harlan is also one of the best things that has ever happened to the Packers. They need his guidance and input. If Harlan is somehow being punished for the John Jones episode, that would be incredibly petty as well as a major blunder.
Let's take this one step further. As a public company, the Packers need to be as public as possible with the hiring process. They should introduce the finalists in the most public way available instead of keeping it behind closed doors.
They should take a lesson from the Milwaukee Brewers.
As a private company, the Brewers did not have to trot out its managerial finalists in front of the media five years ago before Ned Yost was hired. But they did so because general manager Doug Melvin rightly believed it was the best thing for the team.
"There are more benefits to do it than not to do it," Melvin said Tuesday. "A very big part of a manager's job is dealing with the media and responding to questions from the media."
The same will be true for the next Packers CEO. It is a largely public-relations job, a selling job, and the shareholders need to see that person interact in an open forum before a decision is made.
The Packers are as big as it gets in pro sports, but that doesn't mean it's time to go corporate. You go with what works.
For any of you who have lived through the last years of the Dominic Olejniczak and all the Robert Parins years (think Bengston through Infante), you will understand. For those who haven't, pray that this plays out correctly.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=685957
One of the good things about the Green Bay Packers is their singular public structure.
It is also one of the bad.
Good, because there is no Jerry Jones, no Al Davis and no Bill Bidwell, no goofy owner to run amok, embarrass the constituency, move the team or get the Michael Jackson cosmetic treatment.
Bad, because sometimes you need a focal point for discontent when things go wrong. As convenient targets, such men have been placed on this earth for that express purpose.
Green Bay is the franchise that should not exist. The Packers are the only non-profit, community-owned big-league sports team in the country. The town is not big enough to support indoor lacrosse, yet the Packers are among the NFL's most valuable enterprises.
It is, for the most part, a beautiful thing when the Packers' exclusive system is allowed to work.
It works when the football people are allowed to make all the football decisions. Curly Lambeau. Vince Lombardi. Ron Wolf. Let those men call the football shots, and championships happen. Let the board of directors get all power-mad and overly involved, and it goes bad, Scooter McLean bad.
You can only hope that the executive committee seeking Bob Harlan's successor is paying attention to the team's undeniable history.
In the Sunday Journal Sentinel, Tom Silverstein reported that Harlan is largely being excluded from the hiring process for the next CEO/president. That is a huge mistake on several levels.
One is the fear that the executive committee is pulling an Al Haig in trying to assert who's really in charge of the Packers. The fear is that the committee might appoint a CEO without a solid football background because a big-city hiring firm says it is the corporate thing to do. And that would be a disaster, for it would not be the Green Bay Way.
Harlan picked Ted Thompson. Thompson picked Mike McCarthy. The Packers, as you've noticed, have something very good going with McCarthy and Thompson. They could be 10-1 and playing for home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs when they go to Dallas on Nov. 29.
Harlan is also one of the best things that has ever happened to the Packers. They need his guidance and input. If Harlan is somehow being punished for the John Jones episode, that would be incredibly petty as well as a major blunder.
Let's take this one step further. As a public company, the Packers need to be as public as possible with the hiring process. They should introduce the finalists in the most public way available instead of keeping it behind closed doors.
They should take a lesson from the Milwaukee Brewers.
As a private company, the Brewers did not have to trot out its managerial finalists in front of the media five years ago before Ned Yost was hired. But they did so because general manager Doug Melvin rightly believed it was the best thing for the team.
"There are more benefits to do it than not to do it," Melvin said Tuesday. "A very big part of a manager's job is dealing with the media and responding to questions from the media."
The same will be true for the next Packers CEO. It is a largely public-relations job, a selling job, and the shareholders need to see that person interact in an open forum before a decision is made.
The Packers are as big as it gets in pro sports, but that doesn't mean it's time to go corporate. You go with what works.