Ron Wolf, former Green Bay Packers general manager, was one of the celebrity guests who attended the Door County Boys & Girls Club golf outing last week at Horseshoe Bay Golf Club in Egg Harbor. In nine years under Wolf, the Packers made the playoffs six straight times, won Super Bowl XXXI and compiled a 92-52 record, the second-best winning percentage (.639) in the National Football League from 1992 to 2000.
Q. What does it mean to you to get involved with this event?
A. I don’t play golf, but it’s an opportunity for me just to lend a hand and do whatever I can to help out. The more we support the youngsters, the better off we’re going to be in the long run.
Q. Your son, Eliot, was recently promoted to director of pro personnel for the Packers. How does that make you feel?
A. As a parent, I’m very, very proud of what he’s done because he did it without any help from me. All that he’s accomplished, he’s done solely on his own.
Q. What advice have you given him?
A. He hasn’t really solicited any of my advice. I think in order to be good at what you do, you have to do it on your own, and that’s what he’s done. He went to work (as an intern) for Atlanta for six or seven years and every summer was in their camp. Then he went to Seattle for a couple of years and that really helped him a lot. What he’s done at his age (29), I think is remarkable. And the Packers keep promoting him.
Q. From what I understand, when Eliot was just 10 years old he used to watch game film with you at Packers’ headquarters as you scouted players. Tell me about that.
A. I think a picture is worth a thousand words. And the way I learned and the way I was trained by Al Davis of the Oakland Raiders was to sit and watch film with the coaches. Eliot had an opportunity to sit in there and watch with us when we put our board together in preparation for the draft. It’s a fairly simple process. You can tell when watching players on a big screen who can play and who can’t play. Fortunately, he’s been able to adapt to that.
Q. How do you feel about what you accomplished in Green Bay?
A. When I got to Green Bay, the Packers had the poorest record in the NFL and when I left we had the best record in the NFL. So, I think that’s a pretty good turnaround in nine years.
Q. You were the man responsible for bringing quarterback Brett Favre to the Packers. How do you feel about the way the two sides parted ways?
A. I’m not familiar with any schism, because I’m not around here. He retired, and I watched all of that from Florida. And then suddenly he came back, and I always felt that was a situation that no matter what happened the Packers would never be right. There wouldn’t be any way they could be right until that thing worked itself out. Now, fortunately for Ted Thompson, Aaron Rodgers has come in and just played lights out. And you know, Brett was one timeout from taking his team in Minnesota to the Super Bowl (in 2009). To me, Brett Favre and I are like connected at the hips. I feel strong loyalty to Brett Favre. When I got here, Don Huston was the greatest player ever to play for the Green Bay Packers. I think everybody will tell you now, the greatest player ever to play for the Packers is Brett Favre. That’s his legacy.
Q. What do you think of the job Ted Thompson has done since taking over as Packers GM in 2005?
A. I think he’s done a remarkable job. He weathered the Brett Favre thing, and he was able to get Aaron Rodgers, who I think is unquestionably the top quarterback in the NFL now. They went 15-1 last year, and you would have thought they went 1-15. I live in Jupiter, Florida, and I have a Packers shirt that I took it into the cleaners and a guy said, ‘Oh, you guys really had a tough year last year.’ And I said, ‘What the heck are you talking about? They lost one game.’
Q. How do you feel about former coach Mike Holmgren being inducted next month into the Packers Hall of Fame?
A. He gave us instant credibility when I came on board, because he had been with the 49ers at that time and they were the darlings of the National Football League. He was their offensive coordinator. He was the reason they were so successful. He took that offense and tweaked it where it’s become really the dominant offense today in professional football. It’s a tremendous honor for him. It’s a tremendous honor for anyone to be inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame. It’s well deserved, well earned, and I’m glad to see that he’s in there.
Korey Mallien wrote: