As long as Ted Thompson was general manager of the Green Bay Packers Mike McCarthy was going to be coaching the Green Bay Packers.
They were joined at the hip, the taciturn Texan and the portly Pittsburgher. Thompson hired McCarthy in January 2006, they once stood atop the football world as Super Bowl champions and, other than some sharp disagreements during some years of non-activity in free agency, they were friends and allies alike.
There is no way that Thompson, in his mid-60s, would countenance starting over again with a new head coach and a new coaching staff.
Packers President Mark Murphy always deferred to Thompson when it came to football decisions. Case, closed.
Everything in Packerville changed Monday with word that Thompson was being removed from prominence and that a new GM would be hired. NFL Network broke the news.
Thompson, a month shy of his 65th birthday, reportedly has accepted a complementary role in which he can continue to grind tape, write reports and, if his health permits, scout college players on campus and at all-star games.
His days of calling the shots on every personnel move the Packers make appear over.
Scooped on their own story, the Packers on Tuesday morning plan to send out a press release outlining the changes in Thompson’s duties before Murphy holds a press briefing in the afternoon.
Last week, one of Thompson’s close friends was asked if he could envision a scenario in which Murphy and the corporation’s executive committee would force him out or if he would retire?
“I doubt that Ted will hang it up,” the friend said. “He does not have anything else to do and, more or less, seems to be happy being in charge of the personnel end of the Packers.”
The public images of Thompson and some recent interaction with Packers executives led the 45-member board of directors to instruct Murphy to remove him as general manager, according to one source.
Last month, Thompson was just gazing into space hardly mindful why he was attending a meeting of team executives, the source said.
The incident was one of several in the last six months that called into question Thompson’s fitness for performing such demanding work. It also opened the Packers to embarrassment for having a man with apparent health and focusing issues directing their football operation.
Ten days ago, NBC cameras centered on Thompson at his press-box seat when play was stopped during the Green Bay-Minnesota game at Lambeau Field. For almost 12 seconds Thompson was sitting there with his mouth open.
Deadspin tweeted the photo of Thompson with the caption: “When the ‘nog is too strong.”
Thompson’s mouth was ajar not long before that as he and McCarthy watched Aaron Rodgers warm up at practice.
Thompson frequently is seen in the Packers’ offices in similar pose, which alarmed one person.
This summer I watched as Thompson shuffled slowly around Ray Nitschke Field as he watched practice. Carrying his ever-present water bottle, he would bring the bottle to his lips with great deliberation and take periodic drinks.
Another friend of Thompson’s said recently “there’s something foggy about him” during their recent conversations.
An executive in personnel for an NFC team said he encountered Thompson on the scouting trail this fall.
“He looks like he’s walking in a daze,” the personnel man said last week. “It looks like there’s something that’s slowing him down mentally.”
On Thursday, another personnel man said in his opinion there would be no chance of a new GM in Green Bay any time soon.
“Ted’s going to stay put for a little bit,” the scout said. “I think he’s going to try to fix it and make it better than he found it. He wouldn’t want to leave on this type of note right here.”
Murphy can be expected to examine candidates to replace Thompson from in-house and outside the organization. It’s likely he will rely on Jed Hughes, a head-hunter for Korn Ferry who delivered him to the executive committee in late 2007.
This will be the first major decision that Murphy will make in football since replacing Bob Harlan in January 2008.
If Murphy picks Thompson’s successor from down the hall, the leading candidates would appear to be:
Russ Ball: Age 58. Vice president of football administration/player finance. Hired by Thompson in February 2008 two months into Murphy’s tenure.
Brian Gutekunst: Age 44. Director of player personnel. Hired by GM Ron Wolf in January 1998.
Eliot Wolf: Age 35. Director of football operations. Hired by Mike Sherman in February 2004.
Among the many questions without answers are these:
Would John Dorsey, the long-time Packers personnel man, approach Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, tell him Green Bay has always been his dream job and seek a release from the multi-year contract as GM in Cleveland that he signed Dec. 7?
Would De Pere native John Schneider, another former personnel man in Green Bay, try to get out of his contract as GM of the Seattle Seahawks? In July 2016, Schneider signed an extension that runs through 2021 in which he forfeited an out to take the Packers job.
Would Reggie McKenzie, a Packers personnel man from 1994-’12, remain in Oakland after Jon Gruden is hired as coach? They worked together in Green Bay for eight months in 1994, and they also share a Tennessee background.
In any event, this is the chance for Murphy to make his mark with the Packers.
As for McCarthy, he was back at work Monday one day after the Packers concluded a 7-9 season with a 35-11 loss in Detroit.
McCarthy’s contract status would seem unimportant. Having added $72.8 million in net income for the most recent fiscal year, the Packers easily could pay McCarthy his annual salary that approaches $9 million if a change was deemed appropriate.
According to one friend, McCarthy has begun to feel less appreciated in Green Bay. As long as there were other openings McCarthy almost certainly would land another job, but after 12 years he has established deep family roots in Brown County and probably would want to stay with the Packers for many more years.
One role McCarthy hasn’t expressed interest in would be the dual role as coach-GM. Sherman was the last man in Green Bay to handle both jobs.
According to reports, McCarthy on Monday fired Dom Capers, his defensive coordinator since 2009; Mike Trgovac, his defensive line coach since 2009, and Scott McCurley, who joined his staff in 2007 and coached the inside linebackers since 2014.
The Packers have a ready-made successor for Trgovac in Jerry Montgomery, who has spent the last three seasons assisting with the defensive line as defensive front assistant.
Tim McGarigle, the defensive quality control coach in 2017, coached linebackers at the major-college level for five seasons and would be a distinct candidate to replace McCurley.
At the same time, one source indicated the Packers were hopeful that Winston Moss, one of McCarthy’s first hires and the team’s associate head coach and outside linebackers coach, will find other employment. According to NFL Media, the Detroit Lions have requested permission to interview Moss to succeed coach Jim Caldwell.
“They’re not sure what’s going on,” one source familiar with the Packers said of the coaching staff. “They’re kind of on edge.”
Despite McCarthy’s enviable record over 12 seasons, one reason the 54-year-old coach might not be as secure as many would think is the staleness factor. Like Thompson, McCarthy doesn’t project energy.
“I think he looks heavy and tired,” a friend of his said in November. “I do think that when in your mid-50s and you’re that much overweight, I think it’s hard to have the same juice you did when you were 40 pounds lighter seven, eight years ago.”
BOB McGINN wrote: