Q&A w/TT---McGinn kicks him in the balls over & over

[Rastak]

I find it interesting that part of what people dont like abou
TT is his style. Becasue he does not say a whole lot or is not flashy, peopoe do not seem to like him. We wwil see how the team plays this year.

He's like Colonel Klink in Hogan's Heroes when he screams........I know nothing...I will say nothing !....when he obviously does know a little bit of something.

Ummm, that would be Sgt. Schultz......




General Burkhalter:

Klink you Idiot!

Schultz:

Apple Strudel!

[Bretsky]

I don't buy for one minute McGinn was not brash with Sherman. He threw him under the bus very often. He criticized him for his packaging of picks, and often for his friendship with an offensive coordinator who McGinn thought was doing a lousy job......to the point of questioning if his friendship was clouding Sherman's judgment in keeping Rossley.

McGinn was brash and mean with TT; I agree with that. He tried to get some answers and failed. I bet that was one incredibly frustrating interview for both sides.

Writers hate Question Dodgers, and Dodgers hate being pushed for specific answers.

You won't see these two guys at the Brett Favre Steakhouse toasting anytime soon.

[Bretsky]

I find it interesting that part of what people dont like abou
TT is his style. Becasue he does not say a whole lot or is not flashy, peopoe do not seem to like him. We wwil see how the team plays this year.

He's like Colonel Klink in Hogan's Heroes when he screams........I know nothing...I will say nothing !....when he obviously does know a little bit of something.

Ummm, that would be Sgt. Schultz......




General Burkhalter:

Klink you Idiot!

Schultz:

Apple Strudel!

CRAP I'M BUSTED

I remember the scenes but forgot the names.

Dam you Rastak; normally only Pater catches me with my multitude of inaccuracies

[Rastak]

It's one of my favorite all time shows.

[RashanGary]

2-4 was Mike Sherman's playoff record.

I'm wondering if some of you guys play a little too much John Madden with the cheat codes enabled the way some of you are ripping on TT for not being having AWESOME tight ends and AWESOME runningbacks and an AWESOME offensive line and AWESOME linebackers and AWESOME wide receivers and AWESOME defensive backs. Trade Bubba Smith for Antonio Gates in GM mode and there you go!

What do you want TT to say? "We suck at tight end. You got me there Mr. McGinn. Golly, you sure do know your football. I don't know what the hell I was thinking, I had the cash to buy some average free agents at that position and I just fricking didn't do it. Maybe you could write down how I'm real sorry about how useless some of my players are. I know that won't go over well in my lockerroom but at least I'll know I've been honest with the fans that know so much about each and every one of these guys and whether or not they have the potential to grow into contributing roles on pur team. By the way, I don't know when I've ever been interviewed by such a relentlessly tough seeker of the truth."

Nice perspective Swede.

[woodbuck27]

I just read that interview again and really Packerrats:

Read it carefully. Be really honest in response to this question to yourself:

If you could have looked into the future and had that interview in front of you.

and. . .

You had the capacity to decide on Ted Thompson as the GM of the Green Bay Packers.

Would you hire Ted Thompson to manage the team you love?

Be honest please.

[RashanGary]

Re: Q&A w/TT---McGinn kicks him in the balls over &

Thompsons answers were fine, Woodbuck. It was the questions that had the negative tone.

Try reading it again, this time it won't have McGinn dominating teh conversation and making presumptions rather than asking questions.



I think we try to do the best we can for the team. If our team gets better then that's better for Brett. We're trying to do the best we can. In the draft, the board works a certain way and that's the way we pick guys.


No. Having played helps me a little bit. I don't have thin skin. I think it's good for players to voice their opinions. As an organization you'd like everybody to be happy all the time. I think Brett has earned the right to say what he wants to say, and he does quite often.

Randy Moss is a member of the New England Patriots now. That's the way it is. It's inappropriate for me to be discussing a player that's on another team.

Right. I still think it's inappropriate to talk about a player that's on another team.

I just don't do that.


Well, we would like to win this season. I've said that publicly and privately, saying we expect to win. I don't worry about things like, "Am I going to be here after this year?" That never enters my mind.



I don't do much predicting. I expect us to win. I do think that we should be thinking about the playoffs. Once you get in the playoffs you never know what's going to happen.



I'm not a good judge of public perception, but I think we're a pretty good team. We're going to be stronger and deeper than we've ever been, certainly in the last three years. We're going to have very difficult decisions to make as we go through camp. We've got competition at every position. We're going to be better on special teams. We're going to be better on offense. We're going to have a really good defense. I think it's OK if we're being overlooked.


Well, we have a lot of faith in Aaron Rodgers. But I don't think you ever think that the fate of an organization or someone's career rests solely on one person.


Why I suppose then you'd move on. But we don't look for that to happen. We think whenever it does become his time, Aaron will be a good player. So we're not looking at it in terms of, "Oh my gosh, what if?"


My working relationship was good with John. I wasn't aware of those things.



That's at a much higher level than I'm at. Be a good leader. Good judge of people. Probably the same things that would make you a really good CEO at IBM would make you a good CEO here. A person who gives credit to others. You're going to have to care about this organization and understand how it works and what it means to people. It's a hugely important decision going forward.

Well, Mike has a job in Tennessee. Other than that I'd rather not speculate or talk about that.


We make lots of decisions every day. You try to make each decision the best you can and then you go to the next thing. I know I'm going to get criticism. I know people have passion and they care about this place. I do, too. Maybe to a fault I care about it. I want to do the right thing, and I gnash my teeth and I try to make sure we're doing it the way we should do it. But we try to err on the side of what's best for the organization as a whole. A quick fix or something like that, I don't think it's as important to Packer fans. I think they want to have good people here. They want people that represent the community well. Obviously, it's important to win here. This tradition has been established and re-established over time. We know we have to win.

What's near and dear to me is the team that takes that field, and the players that represent this place, these people that have supported them over all these years can be proud of them. That's where we're trying to get to.

I think we've done a pretty good job building up the core of the team. I think when you have playoff runs like the Packers have had over a number of years you don't have maybe the normal turnover in a roster. You wind up getting a little top-heavy in terms of age. I'm not one of those people who tries to get young for the sake of getting young. It's just that it makes for a more healthy organism, really, if in fact you have a good mixture of veterans and youth. I think we've added competition. We haven't won enough games, and that's my responsibility.


We had some talks. Doing a contract is hard to predict. I would have liked to have kept Ahman. We just got bid out of the water.


That's another example of someone that's on another team and I'm not really going to get into that.


I think my reputation is on the line at every position. But we feel pretty comfortable with the competition we're going to have at running back. We like these guys.


I don't know how to compare them. They're different running backs. I think Brandon Jackson is a good player. Vernand Morency came in and played a role last year and did a nice job. All the guys in the backfield can catch the ball. They have different running styles. We think it's going to be a good group. It may wind up running back by committee, or someone might establish himself.


I don't know that you can predict anything like that. Depends on if some other team is looking to do something.


Yes. I just think they're pretty good backs. There are guys all over the league who played at 212 pounds. We'll see.


Because I think that's what this place is. Football is the ultimate team sport, defense probably even more so than offense. I'm sure people in other sports would argue that. I just think, especially in a place like this, it's good to remind us all that this is a team sport and it's more special here than anywhere else.


Loved it. Absolutely. It affects all of our decisions in personnel. It affects us when we're thinking about guys in the draft or free agency or tradable guys. The best time in football is not when you get a trophy for being an all-pro. The best part is looking around a winning locker room and knowing this guy over here did his part and you feel that collectively. The culture has changed a little bit. There's all this instant access and instant stardom or failure. I still think if you talk to the guys in this sport who have been renowned - Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Charles Woodson - and what their thrills are in life, I'll bet you it would be a team's success as opposed to an individual trophy. Not all players would agree, but I bet you the real ones would.



Yeah. There's still a lot of unknowns. I believe in my heart the competition we have at every position will make our team better.



I don't know about the fear of God and all that. I think we have a chance to be a good defense. We have what I believe, 1 through 9 or 10, an excellent defensive line that works well together. I think our linebackers will be extremely strong, not only our starters but whoever wins in the backup areas. I think our secondary will be very good. We feel very comfortable with Charles (Woodson) and Al (Harris) at the corners. Nick Collins is coming into his own. Marquand (Manuel) didn't have a good year. We're going to be able to play nickel and dime packages. We're going to have depth. Now it has to happen. We have to come together. But I think we saw a little bit of it toward the end of the season.



I don't do too much looking backwards. Probably the one that sticks in my mind is we weren't able to shore together the offensive line in 2005. We didn't do a very good job of that.



Sometimes we were in conversations with people and it just didn't work out. They preferred to be in a particular area of the country. Sometimes it had to do with money. In a lot of cases we felt like some of the players we had were just as good prospects.



No. No, I don't. . . to answer your question (laughs). Free agency is free agency. In some of those cases we were trying to sign them and they signed with other places. In some cases they signed for less than what we offered. With some of those fellows we ultimately felt they wouldn't help us.



No, I think I can think of these things. I wouldn't necessarily characterize that as that. We have played in free agency. We have made signings in 2006. Sometimes a lot of things have to come together. The player has to want to come here. It's got to be a particular position we need help in. I don't think you go sign guys just to add depth to your team. I think you sign guys to play a role.



No. It's difficult to give a self-evaluation on something like that. I don't consider that a problem, but now that you mention it I'll look into it. We have some grandiose ideas at times. A lot of people say we're not very flashy. There are a lot of things that we discuss that don't come to fruition. I have a lot of different personalities working with us. It's their job to bring ideas and thoughts and what-if this and what-if that.



Yeah, I think so. There are obviously different dynamics of the room. My point to all the guys I work with is, that's their job. Let's bounce things off the wall. Let's talk about them. It doesn't necessarily mean we jump and run and do whatever it is, but we talk about those things. We have a pretty open forum. I think if you ask those guys, they'd say it was a pretty comfortable setting.


You're always asking for more wisdom. I know I always do. I'm on my knees every night.



Yeah, it's very important. But you look at each person and each set of circumstances as carefully as you can. With Koren Robinson, obviously I had a history with him. I know that he's a good person. Yes, he made some mistakes. In Rory Johnson's case, he did make some mistakes in college. We have Shawn Slocum, who knows him from Ole Miss. This guy was certainly a good enough player to be drafted. We fixed it so we would not draft him. As a free agent, we feel like it gives the kid another chance. He's never harmed anyone. It's never been anything like that. As a free agent, we felt like it was less risk and see if the kid can fit in with a chance and be the kind of character guy we're looking for.



I don't think Marquand had as good a year as he would have liked. He can play better than that. We do have a lot of competition at safety. We'll see how it bears out.



I've always felt like in free agency it's important to identify your core players and have conversations with them prior to their contracts expiring. Sometimes that works out and sometimes it doesn't. Yeah, I think it's good business for all NFL teams to concentrate on their own players. Those are the ones you know right there at that moment. Sometimes in free agency you don't know all the chinks in the armor. It's good for the locker room to let people know we will value your performance and, if you do the right things, we're going to take care of you.



I don't know. Bubba has been a pretty good player here since before I got here. The last couple years haven't been good years for him. I look for him to have a bounce-back year. He's professional. He carries himself well. But the proof's in the pudding.



Some of it has to do with timing and some on what we actually thought of those players in free agency.

Quite frankly, in a lot of areas we felt our young guys were as good or better than the players we could have acquired. But we'll see. We need to have some production there. It's an important position in our offense.



Once again, we like the guys that we've got. I thought Brandon Miree played well last year prior to his injury. These rookies we've got are going to be pretty good players.

[Packnut]

TT

Ok let me get this straight. It's considered being anti-TT because I know there is no magic fairy who's gonna sprinkle some fairy dust and make our TE's productive? That's called knowing football and knowing damn well not one of the TE's on this roster is gonna produce like a WC offense needs.


I'm considered anti- TT cause after 33+ years of watching football, I know that RB's don't grow on trees. Morency has shown signs of being able to produce, he's also shown signs that he won't. At best he's been inconsistent.
If you look at all RB's who make an impact their rookie season, at least 95% proved themselves by being the "man" in their senior year. Jackson has no history of being that. Again, I know from experience that him having an impact this season is remote.

I could go on with more examples but what's the point? I guess according to some here, we should just throw out all the things we've learned and just have blind faith and trust in Thompson. Hey, if that's what floats your boat, have at it, but I prefer to use reason and logic and EXPERIENCE in evaluating where this team is. I have my hopes and prayers and I drink some kool-aid too, but I also can see the flip side very clearly. If that makes me anti-TT than so be it. All I know is that come Nov., there's gonna be some crow served up with that turkey. I truly hope I'm the one eating it, but I got a hunch that won't be the case........

[RashanGary]

Packnut, I see where you and Woodbuck are coming from. You look at the SS, TE, FB and RB and wonder what the hell we are going to do at all four.

We have a crap load of young guys and unproven guys and more likely than not we're going to exit the up coming season knowing we could have had better production from probably three of the four. I'm assuming we get at least one pleasant suprise (probably Jackson or Morency)

When you look at the team, you can just come on here and site the four worste things and assume the whole season is going to play out according the the bottom 1/15th of the roster. If you look at the starting unit as a whole, from offense to defense, I think you see an overall strong team with some positions that arnt' as strong as others. We'll see how it goes, but I think some here overexaggerate the question marks while down playing the strengths.

Either of us could be wrong. I hope you are too, mostly becuase I want this team to win. If I'm wrong, I'll be eating my own humble pie. Everything I think I know will be wrong and I'll have to just take a wait and see approach for a while as I will know that I dont' know. As for now I still think I do know so I'm looking forward to watching Hawk, Barnett, Kampman, Favre, Driver, Jennings, Jones, Woodson, Harris, Collins, Jenkins, Williams, Harrell, Clifton, Tauscher, Colledge, Wells, Spitz, Rayner/Crosby, Ryan, Manuel, Morency/Jackson, Bubba/Lee, Miree show you wrong. Sure there were a couple stinkers at the end of that list, but there were some damn good ones near the top too. The hope is that they play together as a team and the good outshine the bad.

[PackerBlues]

Having again gone over as much of the interview as I could take, I have come to a conclusion about what hacks me off the most about the whole thing:


McGinn asked Thompson the very questions that we have been debating about on these forums. All of the things that people in these very forums have been at each others throats about for the longest time.

For the people in these forums that are loyal to Thompson to a fault, the only bad part of the interview was the "boldness" or "rudeness" of the questions asked of Thompson. Nevermind that Thompson ducked questions that all of us would like answers to. Why would they care if Thompson answered the questions or not? They dont question Ted, why should anyone else?


For those of us who enjoy watching our team win, how could you not want to ask Thompson the very questions that McGinn asked? How could you not want answers? Thompson does not care what the fans think of him. In his mind, he is doing what he thinks is best for the team. If you can't just take his word for it, Tough Shit!


Obviously, Packer Fans have plenty of reason to be upset with what we have seen from Thompson so far. How many screw ups do we need to see before we can question him without being called "Rude" or "Harsh"? How many glaring mistakes do we have to ignore before it's "one to many"? That'is just talking about the Mistakes that stand out....... what about everything that Thompson Followers are taking on blind faith? The things that "only time will tell".


We have no choice but to except what Thompson has provided for the Packers this year. However, unless Thompson starts talking, the questions are going to be asked more and more, and heard by more and more people. During the game, we always have to put up with listening to the "talking-heads" discuss stupid shit (such as Favres retirement), perhaps this year, they will find something more interestinig to talk about. Like the way that Thompson helped Favre "go out with a bang". HA!!!! Yep, Ted sure improved our Offense, that should get the "Talking-Heads" going, lol. Maybe they will discuss draft picks. Aaron Rogers was a great one, following the dismantlement of our O-line..........that should make for plenty of filler material. Then maybe they will talk about Harrell and the "Boo's". With the lack of improvement to our Offense, they may just have to talk about Harrell........... to many "3 and Outs" may make it difficult to talk about our Offense.

[The Leaper]

Re: Plan

Admittedly, McCarthy is probably no Bellichik, but saying categorically that a "FA light, build through the draft" approach can't work in today's NFL is silly. The last NFL dynasty was built that way.

In fact, just about EVERY NFL dynasty has been built that way...even after the advent of free agency.

However, you do need to be willing to take chances. To this point, Thompson has seemed unwilling to take much of a risk. He may have his reasons for it (young coaching staff, lack of depth to contend anyway) but to this point Thompson has refused to show that he has the ability to make the risky moves necessary to get to the top...such as Wolf showed by acquiring Favre.

[the_idle_threat]

Having again gone over as much of the interview as I could take, I have come to a conclusion about what hacks me off the most about the whole thing:


McGinn asked Thompson the very questions that we have been debating about on these forums. All of the things that people in these very forums have been at each others throats about for the longest time.

For the people in these forums that are loyal to Thompson to a fault, the only bad part of the interview was the "boldness" or "rudeness" of the questions asked of Thompson. Nevermind that Thompson ducked questions that all of us would like answers to. Why would they care if Thompson answered the questions or not? They dont question Ted, why should anyone else?


For those of us who enjoy watching our team win, how could you not want to ask Thompson the very questions that McGinn asked? How could you not want answers? Thompson does not care what the fans think of him. In his mind, he is doing what he thinks is best for the team. If you can't just take his word for it, Tough Shit!


Obviously, Packer Fans have plenty of reason to be upset with what we have seen from Thompson so far. How many screw ups do we need to see before we can question him without being called "Rude" or "Harsh"? How many glaring mistakes do we have to ignore before it's "one to many"? That'is just talking about the Mistakes that stand out....... what about everything that Thompson Followers are taking on blind faith? The things that "only time will tell".


We have no choice but to except what Thompson has provided for the Packers this year. However, unless Thompson starts talking, the questions are going to be asked more and more, and heard by more and more people. During the game, we always have to put up with listening to the "talking-heads" discuss stupid shit (such as Favres retirement), perhaps this year, they will find something more interestinig to talk about. Like the way that Thompson helped Favre "go out with a bang". HA!!!! Yep, Ted sure improved our Offense, that should get the "Talking-Heads" going, lol. Maybe they will discuss draft picks. Aaron Rogers was a great one, following the dismantlement of our O-line..........that should make for plenty of filler material. Then maybe they will talk about Harrell and the "Boo's". With the lack of improvement to our Offense, they may just have to talk about Harrell........... to many "3 and Outs" may make it difficult to talk about our Offense.

BAM!

[PackerBlues]

Having again gone over as much of the interview as I could take, I have come to a conclusion about what hacks me off the most about the whole thing:


McGinn asked Thompson the very questions that we have been debating about on these forums. All of the things that people in these very forums have been at each others throats about for the longest time.

For the people in these forums that are loyal to Thompson to a fault, the only bad part of the interview was the "boldness" or "rudeness" of the questions asked of Thompson. Nevermind that Thompson ducked questions that all of us would like answers to. Why would they care if Thompson answered the questions or not? They dont question Ted, why should anyone else?


For those of us who enjoy watching our team win, how could you not want to ask Thompson the very questions that McGinn asked? How could you not want answers? Thompson does not care what the fans think of him. In his mind, he is doing what he thinks is best for the team. If you can't just take his word for it, Tough Shit!


Obviously, Packer Fans have plenty of reason to be upset with what we have seen from Thompson so far. How many screw ups do we need to see before we can question him without being called "Rude" or "Harsh"? How many glaring mistakes do we have to ignore before it's "one to many"? That'is just talking about the Mistakes that stand out....... what about everything that Thompson Followers are taking on blind faith? The things that "only time will tell".


We have no choice but to except what Thompson has provided for the Packers this year. However, unless Thompson starts talking, the questions are going to be asked more and more, and heard by more and more people. During the game, we always have to put up with listening to the "talking-heads" discuss stupid shit (such as Favres retirement), perhaps this year, they will find something more interestinig to talk about. Like the way that Thompson helped Favre "go out with a bang". HA!!!! Yep, Ted sure improved our Offense, that should get the "Talking-Heads" going, lol. Maybe they will discuss draft picks. Aaron Rogers was a great one, following the dismantlement of our O-line..........that should make for plenty of filler material. Then maybe they will talk about Harrell and the "Boo's". With the lack of improvement to our Offense, they may just have to talk about Harrell........... to many "3 and Outs" may make it difficult to talk about our Offense.

BAM!

Cute, Bam! Bitching and Moaning huh?

I have another cute one for you..... SOS! For all of you that still continue to blindly follow Thompson on pure faith with out asking questions. SOS! "Stuck On Stupid"

[the_idle_threat]

Is it really that "stupid" to take a wait-and-see attitude and see what develops in camp, considering it's only what---day 3?

Has it never happened before that young players have stepped up when given an opportunity (Answer: IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME IN THIS LEAGUE).

Maybe it's far more "stupid" to be BAM-ing about an outcome that hasn't happened yet and may not ever happen.

If the young guys fail to develop as expected, and we have more results like the 1st half of last year's Jets game, I'll be BAM-ing right along with you, and I'll actually have a reason to do it.

Until then, I can't agree with you that it's "stupid" to relax and see what happens.

[cheesner]

Is it really that "stupid" to take a wait-and-see attitude and see what develops in camp, considering it's only what---day 3?

How many here where upset over the James Jones pick? Now there is a thread describing him as a potential star.

PackerBlues:

1. Wouldn't it be easier to remove your head from your ass before looking at what TT has done for the team?

2. Have you considered the long term impacts to the team when looking at the high priced FA moves TT has not made?


See the difference in asking a question rudely and asking in a manner befitting a professional journalist?