The Kerminator
Footballguy
Nice article on Ted Thompson
Green Bay Packers GM Ted Thompson has team on right path
The news keeps getting better and better for the Green Bay Packers.
Less than a week after they won the Super Bowl, team president Mark Murphy announced Friday that General Manager Ted Thompson had signed a contract extension that will keep him around for the foreseeable future.
Thompson is the architect of the Packers’ Super Bowl XLV title and has put the team in position to win multiple championships with a relatively young, talented roster. That Thompson is happy in Green Bay, enjoys his job and gets along well with his colleagues bodes well for the future of the team.
It appears only a matter of time before Thompson will make it official and hand coach Mike McCarthy a contract extension of his own. Unlike the 1990s, when coach Mike Holmgren departed for so-called greener pastures two years after winning the Super Bowl, it looks like Thompson and McCarthy could form a long-term partnership that points toward a promising future.
From early in Thompson’s tenure, it was apparent the Packers were in good hands because he placed so much value on draft choices. Unlike his predecessor, Mike Sherman, Thompson refused to compromise the team's future by squandering draft picks.
Thompson used the draft to build a solid foundation and form the blueprint for success. But that approach required patience, which some short-sighted fans were unwilling to offer.
My admiration for Thompson increased in the summer of 2008 when he had the courage to trade Brett Favre and hand the Packers’ quarterback reins to Aaron Rodgers. It took guts for Thompson to send the face of the franchise packing and stand up to unfair and often ridiculous criticism.
I remember Thompson wading through a sometimes angry mob of fans at the Packers' shareholders meeting at the Lambeau Field Atrium three years ago. He took his lumps but all along believed he was doing what was in the best interest of the team.
It was a sound football decision at the time and was confirmed by the Packers reclaiming the Vince Lombardi Trophy this season.
The Thompson critics who threw a temper tantrum three years ago over Favre’s departure have been silenced. What they need to do is stand up and apologize for their boorish, sometimes outlandish behavior.
For the record, I have no problem with someone criticizing Thompson, McCarthy or any Packers team member. The wide array of opinions and viewpoints regarding the Packers is part of their overwhelming popularity. Fans have every right to question and argue over decisions the team makes. What I object to is when that criticism turns into personal attacks or nonsensical rants.
I would like to see the 1,500 or so knuckleheads that signed a petition calling for Thompson’s firing in 2008 to publicly proclaim how wrong they were. I understand how difficult it must have been to see Favre go – no one can deny how much he meant to the Packers for 16 seasons. But that was no excuse to engage in the character assassination of Thompson.
It was petty, vindictive and downright shameful at times.
Thompson has survived with his dignity and class intact. He had zero interest in gloating or rubbing his critics’ noses in the Packers’ Super Bowl success last Sunday night.
When asked whether he felt any vindication, Thompson replied: “I don’t think in terms of that, I really don’t. I think in terms of what’s best for the team right this second. And the fact that we won the Super Bowl, I think most of the fans will be happy. You would like for all of them to agree with you most of the time, but they’re not, that’s not the way it works. And you can’t run the team trying to be a politician. You can’t try to get votes. You have to do what you have to do.”
That is why the Packers’ future looks so bright. The football decisions are being made by someone who won’t be swayed by which way the winds of popularity are blowing. Thompson sticks by his convictions no matter how angry some fans might get.
One national reporter suggested that Thompson had been through hell and back during the Favre saga and that surely the Packers’ victory in the Super Bowl had to provide some satisfaction. But Thompson was having none of it.
“No, life’s too short for that,” Thompson said. “We’re very happy to have won a world championship. That doesn’t happen all the time, and Aaron (Rodgers) is a good quarterback. We’re very happy he’s our quarterback. He was the MVP of the game, and certainly the MVP of our team this year and has been a dynamo down the stretch in these playoffs. But we don’t reflect back like that. It doesn’t work. It’s just, what’s next?”
Thompson already has started thinking about next season. The Packers’ first formal scouting meeting about the upcoming NFL combine took place at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, less than 36 hours after the Super Bowl concluded.
During the height of the Thompson bashing following Favre’s departure, one of the most laughable claims was that the Packers’ GM made decisions based on his ego. According to that convoluted line of thinking, Thompson wanted to win with a quarterback he drafted rather than with Favre.
The fact is, Thompson wants to win, period, with players that give the Packers the best chance for success. Thompson spent an inordinate amount of time deflecting credit after the Packers’ victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers and couldn’t have been more glowing in his praise for his former boss and ex-Packers GM Ron Wolf.
When I asked Thompson what was the best lesson he learned from Wolf, who hired him in 1992, he replied: “I think 'Believe what you see, not necessarily what you hear.' He was a big believer in seeing players, in scouting them. He was also better at this than me. He was also very good at saying, admitting ‘OK, we might have made a mistake with this guy, we’re going to change out and get another.’ Ron, I was talking to him outside. He trained almost all the people in the personnel part of it for the Green Bay Packers. … almost to a man, every one of them. The things that we do are the things that he taught us what to do.”
Even at the height of his success, Thompson is quick to spread the credit around. That’s the mark of a true leader.
Green Bay Packers GM Ted Thompson has team on right path
The news keeps getting better and better for the Green Bay Packers.
Less than a week after they won the Super Bowl, team president Mark Murphy announced Friday that General Manager Ted Thompson had signed a contract extension that will keep him around for the foreseeable future.
Thompson is the architect of the Packers’ Super Bowl XLV title and has put the team in position to win multiple championships with a relatively young, talented roster. That Thompson is happy in Green Bay, enjoys his job and gets along well with his colleagues bodes well for the future of the team.
It appears only a matter of time before Thompson will make it official and hand coach Mike McCarthy a contract extension of his own. Unlike the 1990s, when coach Mike Holmgren departed for so-called greener pastures two years after winning the Super Bowl, it looks like Thompson and McCarthy could form a long-term partnership that points toward a promising future.
From early in Thompson’s tenure, it was apparent the Packers were in good hands because he placed so much value on draft choices. Unlike his predecessor, Mike Sherman, Thompson refused to compromise the team's future by squandering draft picks.
Thompson used the draft to build a solid foundation and form the blueprint for success. But that approach required patience, which some short-sighted fans were unwilling to offer.
My admiration for Thompson increased in the summer of 2008 when he had the courage to trade Brett Favre and hand the Packers’ quarterback reins to Aaron Rodgers. It took guts for Thompson to send the face of the franchise packing and stand up to unfair and often ridiculous criticism.
I remember Thompson wading through a sometimes angry mob of fans at the Packers' shareholders meeting at the Lambeau Field Atrium three years ago. He took his lumps but all along believed he was doing what was in the best interest of the team.
It was a sound football decision at the time and was confirmed by the Packers reclaiming the Vince Lombardi Trophy this season.
The Thompson critics who threw a temper tantrum three years ago over Favre’s departure have been silenced. What they need to do is stand up and apologize for their boorish, sometimes outlandish behavior.
For the record, I have no problem with someone criticizing Thompson, McCarthy or any Packers team member. The wide array of opinions and viewpoints regarding the Packers is part of their overwhelming popularity. Fans have every right to question and argue over decisions the team makes. What I object to is when that criticism turns into personal attacks or nonsensical rants.
I would like to see the 1,500 or so knuckleheads that signed a petition calling for Thompson’s firing in 2008 to publicly proclaim how wrong they were. I understand how difficult it must have been to see Favre go – no one can deny how much he meant to the Packers for 16 seasons. But that was no excuse to engage in the character assassination of Thompson.
It was petty, vindictive and downright shameful at times.
Thompson has survived with his dignity and class intact. He had zero interest in gloating or rubbing his critics’ noses in the Packers’ Super Bowl success last Sunday night.
When asked whether he felt any vindication, Thompson replied: “I don’t think in terms of that, I really don’t. I think in terms of what’s best for the team right this second. And the fact that we won the Super Bowl, I think most of the fans will be happy. You would like for all of them to agree with you most of the time, but they’re not, that’s not the way it works. And you can’t run the team trying to be a politician. You can’t try to get votes. You have to do what you have to do.”
That is why the Packers’ future looks so bright. The football decisions are being made by someone who won’t be swayed by which way the winds of popularity are blowing. Thompson sticks by his convictions no matter how angry some fans might get.
One national reporter suggested that Thompson had been through hell and back during the Favre saga and that surely the Packers’ victory in the Super Bowl had to provide some satisfaction. But Thompson was having none of it.
“No, life’s too short for that,” Thompson said. “We’re very happy to have won a world championship. That doesn’t happen all the time, and Aaron (Rodgers) is a good quarterback. We’re very happy he’s our quarterback. He was the MVP of the game, and certainly the MVP of our team this year and has been a dynamo down the stretch in these playoffs. But we don’t reflect back like that. It doesn’t work. It’s just, what’s next?”
Thompson already has started thinking about next season. The Packers’ first formal scouting meeting about the upcoming NFL combine took place at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, less than 36 hours after the Super Bowl concluded.
During the height of the Thompson bashing following Favre’s departure, one of the most laughable claims was that the Packers’ GM made decisions based on his ego. According to that convoluted line of thinking, Thompson wanted to win with a quarterback he drafted rather than with Favre.
The fact is, Thompson wants to win, period, with players that give the Packers the best chance for success. Thompson spent an inordinate amount of time deflecting credit after the Packers’ victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers and couldn’t have been more glowing in his praise for his former boss and ex-Packers GM Ron Wolf.
When I asked Thompson what was the best lesson he learned from Wolf, who hired him in 1992, he replied: “I think 'Believe what you see, not necessarily what you hear.' He was a big believer in seeing players, in scouting them. He was also better at this than me. He was also very good at saying, admitting ‘OK, we might have made a mistake with this guy, we’re going to change out and get another.’ Ron, I was talking to him outside. He trained almost all the people in the personnel part of it for the Green Bay Packers. … almost to a man, every one of them. The things that we do are the things that he taught us what to do.”
Even at the height of his success, Thompson is quick to spread the credit around. That’s the mark of a true leader.
Simple logic? There is nothing logical about what Sabertooth wrote or that you agree with. Do you realize how whacked it is to think any team doesn't need to address a particular weakness because they won a championship.
Simple logic? There is nothing logical about what Sabertooth wrote or that you agree with. Do you realize how whacked it is to think any team doesn't need to address a particular weakness because they won a championship.
at anyone agreeing with the logic that a team doesn't NEED to address a weakness just because they won a Super Bowl. What's next? You and Sabertooth telling us the Packers should trade Finely because they don't need him since they won a Super Bowl without him?
For someone that was whining about insults you sure seem to do it as well.Ted Thompson wants and knows it is a need for the Packers to improve in any way possible and that include special teams.
at an adult who still doesn't understand what the word "need" means. My 2 1/2 year old has already figured out the difference between "need" and "want." Are you really this dense?
Who said the sky is falling?You and Sabertooth look like complete fools with your thinking the Packers don't need to do anything to improve in any area because they won the Super Bowl.
Simple logic? There is nothing logical about what Sabertooth wrote or that you agree with. Do you realize how whacked it is to think any team doesn't need to address a particular weakness because they won a championship.
K Mason CrosbyLS Brett Goode (is he really set to be a FA?)FB Korey Hall (one caveat there is where they really feel the progress of Quinn Johnson is...I have not seen much out of him to warrant keeping Johnson over Hall IMO...though, Hall struggled with injury this year)FB John KuhnS Charlie PeprahNow, the others
E Johnny Jolly...he applied for reinstatement and wants to be a Packer...though, I believe he will be restricted and not an unrestricted since that is what he was set to be next year. If they let him go, its purely on character reasoning.OG Daryn Colledge...still has struggled and is inconsistent. But he has been around, shows up, hasn't missed much, if any, time due to injuries. If Lang is ready, I can see both he and Spitz gone (Spitz also depending on what they think of a guy like Dietrich-Smith)RB Brandon Jackson...tries free agency and doesn't find much out there. Comes back unless they go in a direction like a guy like Leon Washington or someone else who can handle returns.DE Cullen Jenkins...going to want a nice chunk of change and may get it elsewhere. If Jolly gets reinstated, I think they let Jenkins walk.WR James Jones...part of me thinks someone might overpay him. Part of me really wants him back. Just has too much talent to let go (even with the drops). If they can keep this WR corps together at a modest price...lets do it. I don't see TT getting into any bidding war for him obviously.
