GREEN BAY Ted Thompson said it as an applause line, but like every good joke, there was more than a little truth to it.
Those of you who have been here know Im not going to tell you a whole lot of stuff, the Green Bay Packers general manager said in prefacing the position-by-position portion of his football report to shareholders at the annual meeting at Lambeau Field Thursday. I dont get into specifics, and theres not going to be any billboard material for another team to take advantage of. So bear with me. Those of you who know me, take care of the people that dont know me.
What Thompson wasnt kidding about was that the Packers, a chic pick for Super Bowl XLV by a few high-profile prognosticators, face high expectations in 2010.
I know there are a lot of expectations about this year. Talking with the board members inside, theres a lot of excitement. (And) there should be, Thompson told the crowd. This is a good team, I think we have a lot of confidence in ourselves, but know this: The NFL is a very hard business, its very unforgiving, and it will trample you to death if you dont get up. Thats one of the things we always talk to our players about: Youre going to get knocked down, but make sure you get back up.
This will be an interesting year. I hope you guys are along for a long ride. And stay with us, because from time to time we may get knocked down, but we will get back up.
We do expect to win, (and) our goal is the same every year, the same as all 31 other teams in the National Football League. Were going to give it a go, but we do expect to win.
Before signing autographs as he departed the meeting, Thompson talked about a variety of topics during his 20-minute report. Some highlights:
> On the team being the youngest team in the league on opening day the past four years in a row: People talk about us having the youngest team in the league, and I think we technically did last year. But one of my goals is to try not to be one of the youngest teams in the league this year just so people quit asking about it. Its not on purpose. Its just the way its worked out. But when that changes, there will be harder choices as this team matures as we go forward.
> On his decision not to sign any outside free agents, Thompson called free agency the infamous unrestricted free agency system and said the Packers chose to invest in our own players. We have thought for some time that that was the best policy. We felt good coming out of it.
> Thompson acknowledged the offensive line much maligned sometimes last year, but said it will be much improved over last season.
> On offseason off-the-field incidents involving Johnny Jolly, Spencer Havner and Brandon Underwood: "There were a couple incidents in the offseason that reflected poorly on the Packers. First and foremost, Id like you to know that I take responsibility for that. Anything that brings any sort of tarnish to the Green Bay Packers is my responsibility, and were never perfect, were going to continue to work on that and we will get better on that.