Ron Wolf was in an office in Lambeau Field Tuesday watching the last two Green Bay Packers games. Later that night he had dinner with his son, Eliot Wolf, the Packers' assistant director of pro personnel.
But it's not what you might be thinking.
The former Packers general manager was watching the games because he had been traveling in Europe and had not seen a snap of NFL football yet this season. And he was asking his son to fill him in on the best players and new talent wearing green and gold.
Wolf, 71, is retired. Really.
Some folks wondered about that last year when Donald Driver mentioned that he ran into Wolf in Lambeau. Fans wondered (and maybe hoped) that Wolf might be in some kind of consultant position, advising the current GM, Ted Thompson, on personnel decisions.
But Wolf was just rehabilitating a knee after surgery.
"Torn cartilage, that's all," he said. "That's what happens when you get a little bit older, things fall apart a little bit. So you have that to look forward to."
Before the 2009 season, Wolf and his wife, Edie, came back to Green Bay. They now split their residence between here and a home in Florida. They came back in part to be around Eliot, one of their five children, and because they missed Green Bay. Edie, a former psychologist who once had her own practice, still has many friends here.
But the man who devoted every working hour to evaluating players on film or hitting the road to scout them in college didn't return to Green Bay to live and breathe Packers or second-guess the way they run things.
He had just returned from Europe, where he toured sites of the World War II Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and parts of Germany. He'll never forget visiting Ypres, where every night at 8 the Belgian town honors the people who were slain in a battle there in World War I. He gazed with awe at the Menin Gate Memorial that has the names of 54,000 whose remains were never found.
Down the road, Wolf visited a British Commonwealth cemetery where 12,000 more are buried and another wall bears the names of 34,000 whose remains were never found.
"Just think about that. It's an incredible thing," said Wolf. "All the lives that were lost in World War I. During the Bulge, 81,000 people were lost there. You look at that and you think to yourself, 'Why? Why?'
"Since I have retired, I have discovered there are so many things that I knew absolutely nothing about."
A native of New Freedom, Pa., Wolf served with Army intelligence in Europe from 1956-'59. While stationed in Berlin, he once hoped he would work in the NFL.
Wolf hardly ever watches the NFL now. He dives into these history projects and reads all about his next travel destination, whether he is visiting the Panama Canal or sites of Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign in western Virginia.
"I read about people. I'm more into people than I am into situations," Wolf said. "History fascinates me and where these people come from. I'm trying to find the answer why, and I know I never will, but I am very curious about that.
"I don't follow football that closely anymore," said Wolf. "Part of the reason is I don't know the players. That was always a fun or enjoyable part of it for me. Now I don't know the players. I understand the Packers because I'm around and I'm very fortunate that Ted and Mike let me come to practice when I want to and I can go up there and watch the tapes of the game."
Wolf laughs at the idea that he ever might advise Thompson or Packers coach Mike McCarthy.
"Oh no, absolutely not. I don't talk to Ted at all about that," Wolf said. "He's doing such a sensational job himself, he doesn't need my two cents. He gets enough from everybody else. He doesn't ask for it and I wouldn't give it to him anyway because I'm not qualified.
"There's an entirely new regime there with Mark Murphy. The executive committee has changed, everybody is brand new. Ted is a great story, the success he's had, his ability to develop teams. I had my time and what we did here was a very memorable time for me. To come to Green Bay in free agency football, when Green Bay had the worst record in football and when I left we had the best record - people said that would never happen. And it did.
"The fact that they're still going on and keeping that legacy alive is a great tribute to Ted Thompson, Mike McCarthy and the present regime."
While Wolf's presence in Green Bay doesn't cast shadows over Thompson, the GM likes having Wolf around.
"Most of the day-to-day stuff of my job I learned from him. And he's still sort of my mentor," Thompson said. "He's welcome here anytime."
Thompson also appointed Eliot Wolf to assistant director of pro personnel - the same role Ron Wolf gave to Thompson when he hired him in 1992.
"I see a lot of the similarities between Ron and Eliot. Eliot's a very gifted young man," said Thompson.
Sometimes the only way Ron could spend time with his boy, back when he was building Super Bowl teams in Green Bay, was to bring him to the office. At age 10, Eliot helped out in his first film session. The 28-year-old has attended and worked the last 18 scouting combines and NFL drafts. Eliot always gets a call from his famous dad after games.
"But I also try to stay out of his way, because they're busy now, really busy now," Ron Wolf said. "He really enjoys it and I'm glad. And I'm glad he's doing something he really likes. I worked 41 years in the game and they actually paid me for that. I pinch myself every once in awhile, how fortunate I was."
These days, Wolf is content to watch the game as a fan.
"I root hard for the Packers because of Eliot and Ted. Of course, being a fan I certainly know a lot more than I do know," he said with a laugh.
"Clay Matthews is a really tremendous player. He's very, very skilled and athletic," Wolf said. "He's relentless. Plus, he's athletically gifted. I think Aaron Rodgers is exceptional. Greg Jennings is exceptional. That Jermichael Finley, he looks like he has rare qualities. I like watching their young players, like Bryan Bulaga had a nice game, really a nice game. That's got to make them feel good."
Wolf hasn't seen any games this year other than the two Packers wins on tape. He doesn't know how Brett Favre is doing for the Minnesota Vikings. Of course, it was Wolf who made the daring trade with Atlanta to acquire Favre shortly after he became GM for the Packers in 1991. Wolf's feelings for Favre have not faded.
"He's a very special person in my life and I have high regard for him. Always will," Wolf said. "Brett Favre and I are attached at the hip almost. It's difficult seeing him perform in that purple uniform, though."