Ray Rhodes, Antonio Freeman and Charles Jordan

[Pugger]

Sherman's drafts - outside of a couple of guys - and his FA acquisitions really put us in a bind and it took TT a couple of years to fix it.

[Joemailman]

When Rhodes left GB following the 1993 season to return to SF, he made some comments about the culture of GB not being comfortable for him. This ticked Holmgren off who had gone to some trouble to fight the stigma of GB being a backward place where black athletes and coaches were not comfortable. So there was no love lost between Rhodes and Holmgren at this point. I wonder if Wolf's decision to hire Rhodes without, I believe, interviewing anyone else was in part indicative of the animosity between Wolf and Holmgren.

[Patler]

When Rhodes left GB following the 1993 season to return to SF, he made some comments about the culture of GB not being comfortable for him. This ticked Holmgren off who had gone to some trouble to fight the stigma of GB being a backward place where black athletes and coaches were not comfortable. So there was no love lost between Rhodes and Holmgren at this point. I wonder if Wolf's decision to hire Rhodes without, I believe, interviewing anyone else was in part indicative of the animosity between Wolf and Holmgren.

Ya. it makes you wonder, doesn't it? When Wolf hired Rhodes, I didn't like it for a couple reasons. First, I wasn't at all impressed with Rhodes years in Philly apart from the first. Second, I didn't expect him to stay very long in view of his criticism of Green Bay when he left. If he hated it so much that he ran back to SF after just two years in GB, why was he coming back again? Probably because it was his only opportunity to try to resurrect his career as a head coach after sinking the ship in Philly.

[Patler]

Wolf's top choices when Holmgren was getting ready to leave in 1999 were Rhodes and Dick Jauron, and he reportedly wasn't considering anyone on Holmie's staff (Reid, Sherm Lewis). In retrospect Wolf looks pretty bad on that one. I wonder if he just couldn't see what he had in front of him or if he was just opposed to hiring internally and wanted to bring in someone from the outside with a new perspective? My hunch it was the latter, and that he would have seen Reid as limited in his potential to grow as a head coach in Green Bay by virtue of his close ties to the outgoing administration. I don't blame Wolf for not wanting to hire one of Holmgren's coaches (internal hires often have a hard time establishing their independence) but it is hard to know what he saw in Rhodes that the rest of the world couldn't see.

You are probably right.

The public excuse Wolf has given several times is that he felt Reid needed a couple more years experience before being suitable for a HC position. Made some sense in comparison to the experience of Rhodes, but a year later Wolf hired Sherman, who was a few years older, but his NFL experience was limited to two years as TE coach in GB and one year as OC in Seattle. Other than that, he was an OL coach in college. Reid had been in GB for seven years when Rhodes was hired, with increasing responsibilities, and had been Assistant HC under Holmgren for two years, often considered a stepping stone to a HC spot. Reid seemed much more prepared for the job in 1999 than Sherman was in 2000.

[Cleft Crusty]

Sherman's tenure as GM is a perfect example of why, like with the draft, true evaluation a GM's body of work can only happen after the fact. The owl of Minerva only takes flight at night.

I prefer the fighting Owls of Mount Healthy. Great stadium.

[woodbuck27]

I enjoyed reading this thread.

Hindsight is .................... 20-20.