GBRulz
11-29-2007, 05:00 PM
Source: Packers board to meet Monday to name Murphy CEO/president
Northwestern athletic director would replace Harlan
By Richard Ryman
rryman@greenbaypressgazette.com
The Green Bay Packers board of directors is expected to meet Monday to decide whether to make Mark H. Murphy, athletic director at Northwestern University, the team’s president and chief executive officer.
An NFL source said the board will meet Monday.
Packers spokesman Aaron Popkey said Thursday a regular quarterly board meeting is scheduled for Dec. 18. He said no meeting has been announced for next week.
NFL sources have confirmed that Murphy is the Packers search committee’s choice to replace Chairman Bob Harlan as the 10th head of the organization. The Packers have begun contract negotiations with Murphy, though the 45-person board of directors ultimately will have to confirm him for the position with a majority vote before the hiring is official.
One source said Murphy, 52, was among three finalists for the job, along with Jason Wied, the team’s vice president of administration and corporate counsel, and a third unidentified candidate.
Murphy has no experience in NFL administration, but played in the league for eight years, from 1977-84, as a safety for the Washington Redskins. As a union representative, he was a member of the bargaining team for the NFL Players Association during the 1982 players strike, and immediately after his playing career ended he worked as an assistant executive director with the NFL Players Association. He has not worked for an NFL team in an administrative capacity.
Murphy played football and baseball in college at Colgate and earned a master’s degree in business administration from American University while he was playing for the Redskins. After retiring from football, he attended Georgetown University Law Center at night while also working for the NFL Players Association, and eventually went to law school full-time. After earning his law degree he became a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice for four years.
In 1992, Murphy went back to Colgate as athletic director, and he held that post until Northwestern hired him as athletic director in June 2003.
The selection of a new president would resolve a situation created in May when the board decided against making John Jones the team’s new president.
Jones had been selected and groomed by Harlan to take over the organization, but health issues and other concerns prompted the team to part ways with Jones only days before he was to be made chief executive officer. Jones had a rare, undetected birth defect in his heart that led to an “aortic dissection,” or a tear in the inner wall of his aorta. He underwent multiple surgeries in June 2006 that helped saved his life.
Jones said his recovery made doing the job difficult.
— Press-Gazette reporter Pete Dougherty also contributed to this story.
Northwestern athletic director would replace Harlan
By Richard Ryman
rryman@greenbaypressgazette.com
The Green Bay Packers board of directors is expected to meet Monday to decide whether to make Mark H. Murphy, athletic director at Northwestern University, the team’s president and chief executive officer.
An NFL source said the board will meet Monday.
Packers spokesman Aaron Popkey said Thursday a regular quarterly board meeting is scheduled for Dec. 18. He said no meeting has been announced for next week.
NFL sources have confirmed that Murphy is the Packers search committee’s choice to replace Chairman Bob Harlan as the 10th head of the organization. The Packers have begun contract negotiations with Murphy, though the 45-person board of directors ultimately will have to confirm him for the position with a majority vote before the hiring is official.
One source said Murphy, 52, was among three finalists for the job, along with Jason Wied, the team’s vice president of administration and corporate counsel, and a third unidentified candidate.
Murphy has no experience in NFL administration, but played in the league for eight years, from 1977-84, as a safety for the Washington Redskins. As a union representative, he was a member of the bargaining team for the NFL Players Association during the 1982 players strike, and immediately after his playing career ended he worked as an assistant executive director with the NFL Players Association. He has not worked for an NFL team in an administrative capacity.
Murphy played football and baseball in college at Colgate and earned a master’s degree in business administration from American University while he was playing for the Redskins. After retiring from football, he attended Georgetown University Law Center at night while also working for the NFL Players Association, and eventually went to law school full-time. After earning his law degree he became a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice for four years.
In 1992, Murphy went back to Colgate as athletic director, and he held that post until Northwestern hired him as athletic director in June 2003.
The selection of a new president would resolve a situation created in May when the board decided against making John Jones the team’s new president.
Jones had been selected and groomed by Harlan to take over the organization, but health issues and other concerns prompted the team to part ways with Jones only days before he was to be made chief executive officer. Jones had a rare, undetected birth defect in his heart that led to an “aortic dissection,” or a tear in the inner wall of his aorta. He underwent multiple surgeries in June 2006 that helped saved his life.
Jones said his recovery made doing the job difficult.
— Press-Gazette reporter Pete Dougherty also contributed to this story.