GREEN BAY Mike Holmgren wishes everyone knew the Ted Thompson that he knows.
Maybe, Holmgren figures, just maybe, his old friend will open up during the next two weeks leading up to Super Bowl XLV, let a few people in as he takes the Green Bay Packers team that he built back to his old stomping grounds in Texas. Perhaps, having grown up in a little cattle-ranching town in Northeast Texas called Atlanta, gone to college in Dallas at SMU and played 10 NFL seasons in Houston, Thompson will find himself surrounded by fellow Texans, drop his guard a bit and introduce the general public to the guy Holmgren knows and loves.
But knowing Thompson the way he does, Holmgren the Cleveland Browns president and former Packers and Seattle Seahawks head coach doubts that will happen.
Its a shame, said Holmgren, who worked with Thompson in Green Bay from 1992 through 1998, then hired him away from the Packers to run the Seahawks personnel department from 2000 through 2004. I tease him. I said, When you go there, youve got to extend yourself a little bit. Youre not on your horse in the North 40, counting the cows. But he is who he is.
Problem is, most folks dont know who that is.
They know Thompsons resume, that he came to the Packers personnel department in 1992 under then-GM Ron Wolf, the architect of the 1996 team that won Super Bowl XXXI. They know he spent five seasons as Holmgrens right-hand personnel man in Seattle after Holmgren got the dual role of Seahawks coach/GM. They know he returned to Green Bay in January 2005 when coach/GM Mike Sherman was stripped of his general manager duties following the 2004 season, and then-president/CEO Bob Harlan wanted to split the jobs.
They also think they know the kind of guy he is, with more than a few misguided souls accusing him of being an egomaniac who drove away iconic quarterback Brett Favre during the tumultuous summer of 2008. Even now, some of those people stubbornly refuse to acknowledge that Thompson may simply have been put in a tough position and made the decision he thought was in the teams long-term best interest.
But, they dont know who he is, really.
Ill tell you who he is: Hes honest, hes talented, hes hard-working. Hes loyal. Hes a great friend. Hes great. Hes great, Holmgren said. If there was any way I could have talked him into staying in Seattle when he made that change (to become Packers GM), I wouldve. But the Packers kind of came in and swooped him up. And hes doing great.
Hes done a great job. Theyre a really good football team.
That is one thing that at this point isnt open to debate. As he stood in a small alcove inside the triumphant Soldier Field visitors locker room Sunday evening, he tried to be inconspicuous in his white Tommy Bahama half-zip. Moments earlier, hed stood in the background during the Halas Trophy presentation and watched the ceremony without making any effort to inject himself into the proceedings, and now he had a thicket of microphones and digital recorders in his face, all attached to questioners who wanted him to talk about his least-favorite subject: Himself.
This is very satisfying, to be able to take the Packers back to the Super Bowl. Its special. And I think the people in here, the players in here know that its special, Thompson said.
Theres not any more satisfaction Im very satisfied that we won the game (but) I dont take any personal satisfaction with the way we do things. Because we do things the way Ron Wolf taught us to. Everybody that works in our personnel department was tutored under Ron Wolf, including myself. So were just doing our job.
And after enduring more than his share of harsh, mean-spirited criticism in the wake of the Favre decision, he has done that job wonderfully, although by taking a vastly different approach than the flamboyant Wolf.
I hired Ted with the thought that he could do for us what Ron Wolf did for us in the 90s, and hes on his way to accomplishing that. Hes built a great ballclub, Harlan said in an interview last week on ESPNMilwaukee and ESPNMadison. Nobody agrees with every decision the general manager makes. But when you look at the two eras, they were built very much the same way.
When Ron Wolf came in, he hired a good coach in Mike Holmgren, got a franchise quarterback in Brett Favre and he got a standout defensive player in Reggie White. And that was our foundation in the 90s. Now Ted Thompson comes in, gets a good coach in Mike McCarthy, gets a franchise quarterback in Aaron Rodgers and has a sound defense formed around Charles Woodson and Clay Matthews. So these two men have worked very much alike. And after what we went through in the 70s and 80s when we could never win, what Ron accomplished in the 90s and what Ted Thompson has accomplished in the last six years, its just good to see the Packers back among the elite teams where they belong.
They are different type people. Ron Wolf, he will take more chances. And he did appreciate the spotlight more. Ted is really a back room guy. I remember when I was going to hire him, I went to one of the PR individuals and told him what I was going to do, and the first thing the person said to me was, Boy, Teds not very good with the press. And I said, Im not hiring him to be good with the press. Im hiring him to build a football team for us. And he will do that. And he has done that. The personality doesnt matter.
One aspect of Thompsons personality that does matter, though, is the way hes the same person day-in and day-out. While Packers fans everywhere were rejoicing in the teams first Super Bowl berth since 1997, Thompson was packing his bags for Mobile, Ala., where hell be attending the Senior Bowl this week, just as he does every offseason.
Ted Thompson, he's the easiest guy in the world to work with because he's so consistent. He's perfect for a first-time head coach. He was for me, said McCarthy, whom Thompson hired in January 2006 despite being a relative unknown among head-coaching candidates at the time. He's the same person every day. He doesn't make emotional decisions. He has a plan, sticks to his plan. Has the strength to stick to the plan even through the storms. He's the leader of our football operations. He's why this team is in the shape that it's in and why the future looks so bright.
Until Sundays victory over the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship Game, Thompson had been defined in many fans minds by the Favre decision. When the future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback decided to unretire, Thompson could have caved to public pressure and given him his old job back, stunting the growth of Rodgers, who has in three years as a starter developed into one of the NFLs elite quarterbacks at age 27.
Instead, Thompson stood his ground, despite ad hominem attacks and fans who steadfastly refused to entertain the notion that he might have known what he was doing. Throughout the ordeal, the franchise stood by him, even as the situation grew ugly.
Its always been easy (to support Thompson) because I have confidence in the quality of the person, president/CEO Mark Murphy said. I cant imagine theres a general manager in the league that works any harder than Ted. He just has a real good feel for what the team needs. Ive just been very impressed and have a lot of confidence in him.
I think this year really showed the quality of Teds work over the last two to three years. You look at the depth of the roster, players hes been able to identify. Weve got starting players, players playing key roles for us, who were undrafted free agents this year. Thats a tribute to Ted and his staff, that they were able to identify the players. You look at the draft, and the quality and depth of the team, and that was crucial to the success weve had.
Ive always had great confidence in Ted and Mike. I think what has set the Packers apart is we hire good people to make football decisions and we let them make those decisions. Thats what youve seen here.
Asked whether he ever saw Thompson waver during the Favre fiasco, McCarthy said no.
I understand how passionate our fan base is, McCarthy said. That particular situation, there was a lot that was out in the public. But I think it truly shows the strength of Ted to stick to his guns, stay the course. We stayed with the plan. We made the decision based on what we felt was the best interests of the Green Bay Packers, and we never budged off of it. It wasn't popular, and it wasn't fun at times, but we felt it was the right decision. And I think why we're standing here today talking about it proves it was the right decision.
Thompson has made a lot of those since then, too. This season, amid an avalanche of injuries that landed 15 players on injured reserve, he has patiently allowed drafted players blossom and while picking players like Erik Walden and Howard Green off the scrap heap. Just as important, hes made the smart call on moves he chose not to make.
When starting running back Ryan Grant went down with a season-ending ankle injury in Week 1, he chose not to give up draft picks to acquire Buffalos Marshawn Lynch or Dallas Marion Barber and watched rookie James Starks burst onto the scene. When veteran cornerback Al Harris was eligible to come off the physically unable to perform list, Thompson opted to cut the two-time Pro Bowler for fear that he would become a malcontent if buried on the depth chart and watched as Tramon Williams became a star and rookie Sam Shields developed at warp speed.
Ted's always had the mind focus that he's always going to build the team and build what's best for this team. He's done a great job at it, wide receiver Donald Driver said. So many people are wondering, Why he didnt go out and get this guy, that guy? That wasn't his mindset. His mindset is, he can build within this locker room. And that shows you what type of character he has to trust in the players that are already here that they can build this team. I take my hat off to him. Normally you think a GM would have to go out and grab players to make this team better. He didn't believe in that.
Instead, he stuck to what he believed in, and now its paid off with a trip to North Texas for Super Bowl XLV which could be the first of several on his watch.
We're a young team that continues to grow, outside linebacker Clay Matthews said. He's obviously taken hits through the media and maybe not picking up a guy or the whole Favre situation. But we're in the Super Bowl now. There's not a whole lot you could say about him that's not positive.
"Jason Wilde" wrote: