If you’re one of those yelling “Fire Ted Thompson!” every time Packers lose, sorry
Green Bay president says GM can stay on “as long as he wants.”
Green Bay Packers fans may be the most spoiled in all of sports.
When the team is doing great — and let’s be honest, it hasn’t really been bad since before Brett Favre — fans can’t find anyone not to praise.
When the team loses a game, the hate runs rampant:
- Fire the coach.
- Fire the GM.
- The playcalling was terrible, have someone else call plays.
- We’re not protecting the quarterback.
- The defense is awful. Fire the defensive coordinator.
The blame is comical. It’s a running joke amongst my friends who we’re going to behead first when Green Bay loses a game.
Hell, even former Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings got into it.
“I’m just going to flat out say it: if we had a lead, our issue wasn’t the defense, our issue was Mike McCarthy,” Jennings said on Undisputed (below).
“I’m just going to flat out say it: if we had a lead, our issue wasn’t the defense, our issue was Mike McCarthy.” — @GregJennings pic.twitter.com/cq5DzqFI5W
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) July 12, 2017
Usually it’s Mike McCarthy. If not him, then Dom Capers.
And, if it’s a couple of rocky games in a row — even if the Packers don’t lose — it’s fire GM Ted Thompson for … well, the list is long there, too.
- He didn’t get any free agents.
- He had a terrible draft.
- He’s never had a good draft.
- They got lucky with Aaron Rodgers.
- It’s all Aaron Rodgers, fire everyone.
- He should have brought back John Kuhn.
OK, I made that last one up. But that’s how it goes.
Imagine if we were the Wisconsin Browns. Or, some of you remember the 1980s Packers. How was that?
But, if firing Thompson, who’s entering his 13th season, is at the top of your list of blame when the Packers drop a heartbreaker on a hail mary at the gun — wait, they usually have to win like that, don’t they? — don’t hold your breath.
Packers president Mark Murphy seems to have just given the 64-year-old Thompson a free pass — call it a lifetime contract.
“Ted and I, we have a great relationship,” Murphy told the Wisconsin State Journal. “As long as he wants to continue to work, and he’s still doing a good job — and I think he still does a great job for us — we want him to continue to be our general manager.
“At a point he decides he doesn’t want to do it anymore for whatever reason, then we would do a search.”
The caveat there is “and he’s still doing a good job,” I suppose.
Because, of course, that’s the key.
And, there’s no real point to make a stink about the comment. A team president should really have his GMs back. Why wouldn’t he?
The GM should also be comfortable enough with his job security to make moves to have the team in a winning position in the short term and, perhaps more importantly, the long term.
GMs trying to save their job by trading assets to win now is a great way to ruin a franchise. We wouldn’t know that in Green Bay (wait, it has nothing to do with Thompson and everything to do with Favre and Rodgers, doesn’t it?).
As for Thompson, he seems to play it safe — grab a couple key free agents and win with the draft. It’s the smarter strategy, as long as you’re hitting on draft picks.
They’re young, cheap and not sick of their coaches yet — which might be the most important thing in pro sports.
Get a veteran around too long, and he may just start butting heads with the coach or coordinator. That sometimes seems to be the case with Rodgers and McCarthy, right?
How long would McCarthy — or any of the Green Bay staff — have a job, if it weren’t for Favre and Rodgers?
(Photo from Matt Becker at Packers.com)
