| 20438 | Jeff Perkins | What you will find below is a clear and accurate description of all the decisions and events that prove that Ted Thompson has been a horrible GM for the Packers. It also describes the conflict between Brett Favre and Ted Thompson and lists all the reasons why Brett Favre should be rightfully trusted, valued and brought back to The Packers fold.
Ted Thompson:
Probably was a problem in Seattle
Has made many moves that have been detrimental to The Green Bay Packers team and organization for no legitimate reason
Shows a probably personality defect shown in his business actions and personal lifestyle
Shown a clear lack of respect to those within The Packers organization and the rest of the NFL
Demonstrated a compete lack of trustworthiness
When looking at his complete body of work for The Packers, it would be easier to explain his actions and decisions were the for the cause of inflicting the most amount of harm to the team and organization than doing it the most good and that some of his decisions and actions that have been beneficial to The Packers have been only by accident.
Far be it that I might scribe the facts about The Green Bay Packers GM only because of the current rift between himself and Future Hall of Famer, Brett Favre. Hardly. It is a truth known by everyone around me that I have thought very little of the man, as both a person and a GM since his first transaction as GM for The Packers. This controversy between, almost solely between Ted Thompson and Brett Favre, has actually only been the last straw and the most defining of my case against Ted Thompson. The turning point of my argument mainly rests on the evidence that Ted Thompson is not incompetent, nor un-intelligent (in the traditional, quantifiable sense, at least) but actually plagued by a severe personality disorder. Partially evident by the wide spread reports that, not only, has Ted Thompson never been married, but also has virtually no close friends.
Without further ado, I will now make the case that, not only is Ted Thompson is actually a very poor GM, but that his designs, moves, transactions and bargaining practices have less to do with doing The Packers organization and football team the most amount of good, but is more accurately described as giving his own ego the most amount of strokes.
Jan 15th 2005:
"As Bob Harlan mentioned yesterday, this whole thing, this whole movement here is about structure. It's not about individuals. It's not about Ted Thompson, it's not about Mike Sherman - it's not about even Bob Harlan. It's about what's best for the Packers, both now and going forward. It's about structure, and it's a structure that I think Bob and the Packers were best comfortable with in terms of the way he had it set up previously with Ron Wolf and Mike Holmgren, and Ron Wolf and Mike Sherman." – Ted Thompson 2005
I think it important to remember the events preceding this hire by the Packers as it will weigh in heavily in this case later on. There were a lot of similarities between the 2004 Packers and Seahawks and from the notes and interviews that would be given in the next year, it would seem that the similarities went beyond the fact that both teams were first round KO victims by division rivals. Without naming names, Mike Holmgren said in interviews held around the time of Super Bowl XL, that his relationship with certain members of the front office had deteriorated and that the working environment had become unbearable to him. This had come to a head at the end of the 2004 season and led to Mike Holmgren and owner Paul Allen to discuss not only his future, but the future of the organization and franchise. After that discussion a greater commitment was given to Mike Holmgren and part of that was going to be a shake up in the front office. The result was that Paul Allen fired team president and longtime business associate Bob Whitsitt and team Vice President, Ted Thompson, was also allowed to leave The Seahawks for The Packers GM position, even though, public consensus and conventional wisdom at the time, led many in the local media to believe that The Seahawks would not allow Ted to go in the couple of short months leading up to the draft because of his heavy involvement in the draft process with The Seahawks.
It would be easy to speculate now that Ted Thompson was also a part of the problems that Mike Holmgren had with the front office and that Ted’s departure to Green Bay was simply a more easy and delicate way to alleviate that problem.
We now know that Brett Favre asked Ted Thompson to try and retain the services of his two starting guards, Mike Wahle and Marco Riverra. Now before Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel stands up from the back of the room to protest that this is a player trying to run the team let me state what should be the obvious. When you have an aging Hall of Fame QB asking to keep or attain players on offense, especially those that have done a superb job of protecting him in seasons past, this is neither selfish nor out of the ordinary. Elite QB’s have commonly done this, and, by and large, those requests have been fulfilled by various organizations throughout the years. However, instead of granting Brett’s request, The Packers GM, Ted Thompson, decided to let both of them go right at the start of free agency.
To be fair, there were cap issues to consider especially at that time when Mike Sherman had left such mess with bloated contracts for par or sub-par players, however, in the case of Mike Wahle, he had said in a Jan 10th, 2005 interview that can be found on Packers.com, "Like I said before, it's not always just about the money. You really want to put yourself in a good situation and I think those kind of things have to be looked at. When we were 1-4, my household was pretty miserable. I don't think you would want to take money to be with a team where you're going to be 1-4 all the time. I think there's a lot more things in life and in football than money alone.” He had also stated in an interview with ESPN early in that season while with the Carolina Panthers that he “would have re-signed with Green Bay for ANY money”.
Clearly, this was the first step in Ted Thompson’s campaign against Brett Favre and the first of many transactions that show a clear and well defined personality disorder, clinical narcissism.
The next thing, I feel, was another clog in the machine of Ted Thompson’s narcissism was in the release of Darren Sharper. Now, mind you, I think this worked for us, but it wasn’t by design. Yes Darren did play a few more productive years while we did, and maybe still are, trying to find that great safety to play his position, however, Darren has never been a good tackler, opting instead for the big shoulder-let knock-down hit instead of wrapping up and making a sure tackle. Even though his ball prowess is eagle-eyed sharp, not making good tackles as a safety should get you removed from a team. However, I don’t feel that Ted Thompson ever really understood or knew of these points; I feel he made that decision based surely on the fact that Darren wasn’t his guy. None of them were. And for that reason, and that reason alone, they should all be replaced, in the mind of Ted Thompson…including Brett Favre. This leads to Ted’s biggest blunder, and simultaneously, the best evidence that the media is full of ‘Box Score Only’ reporters that know next to nothing.
The pick of Aaron Rodgers. Now despite the media’s hoopla over the grand, wonderful and fortunate luck of this pick, I’m here to interject a little reality. This pick is ONLY a good pick IF your express intention was to pick Aaron Rodgers. Of course you needed some luck to have that happen, so it wasn’t by some slick design by trade that shows the genius of Ted Thompson and we are talking about a QB that, as a backup, can not stay upright for a full season. If the intention was to pick up the heir apparent to Brett Favre, this is a STUPID pick because everyone knew that the big class for QB’s was in the next year’s draft (Matt Lienhart, Jay Cutler, Vince Young, ect…). I mean, could you imagine what having Vince Young would be like right now? Allowed to sit behind Brett Favre, learning how to play QB for 3-4 seasons with his scrambling ability and ability to make plays when things break down and that arm? Wow! Instead we have Aaron, which, sorry to say, is NOT the QB Vince was or should be. Vince got thrown into the fire early and I believe that has stunted his development. Aaron was a not ready for prime-time player that took two seasons to finally learn what is needed to be a successful QB here, and while I think he now possess those tools, his durability is still a HUGE question mark.
Now if the objective was to pick the best athlete available, this is an even worse pick. Ted Thompson spent a first round pick to a QB, who is not nearly as good as his peers that were to be coming out the next season, and who will not help The Packers win even a game the coming season and for seasons to come. Even in a couple of opportunities to come in mid-game for a hurt Favre, he didn’t win those games. In fact, there are so many other players that The Packers could have picked that would probably have been the difference in winning one or two games more each season. The first name that comes to mind is Heath Miller. In fact, don’t The Packers need a good all round tight end right now?
I’d also take the time to call in just about all but certainly the majority of Ted Thompson’s draft picks, in every draft. About the only one that doesn’t fall into the mold I am just about to describe was the pick of A.J. Hawk, but I believe that to be only because it was SUCH a no brainer that Ted Thompson may have rightfully estimated that to do anything different may have put him into question and punctured the shinny armor he has worn since coming to Green Bay. An armor of perception only really made possible more by the incompetence of Mike Sherman as GM than Ted Thompson’s unique talents at the position. The observation and point I am making here has to do with the fact that all too often he is taking players that should and would normally go in lower rounds at higher rounds. I am having a hard time finding all the exact information I need to make this point so I am going to use one good example of my point and agree that the rest is my perception based upon watching all these Ted Thompson drafts at the time and coming away after the combined experience of all of them and saying to myself that far too often, it seems that Ted Thompson is taking players at higher rounds than those players are projected to go at. Now before I get into this too heavily with my example, I am well aware that this is not that uncommon. If a GM or other draft decision maker sees a player they think has a higher value than their projected pick, and they want that player, but feel there is a very good chance that another team will pick that player before their teams’ pick comes up in that round or late in the earlier round, they will spend an early round draft pick to get that player, that they feel have the potential they are looking for. I totally get and understand that. My point is that Ted Thompson does that too often, and actually in other ways, mishandles the draft, and is not actually doing a good job where his so called expertise lies.
The example I point to is Justin Harrell in the 2007 draft. Now I have nothing against this guy. In fact, I hope he does well. But the fact of the matter is that this guy had a serious arm injury that required surgery and rehab. While experts did not conclude that he would fall out of the draft altogether, he was projected by many to be a late 2nd round or 3rd round draft pick, despite his first round potential, because of the nature of his injuries. The bottom line is that he could have still been picked later and we could have gotten more value out of that draft pick. I think this whole ideal is also shown in this last 2008 draft, however, I know that arguing this point is still, mostly a matter of speculation and not fact and probably won’t be settled one way or the other for a few more seasons at least.
The next item on the agenda is the request of Brett Favre to interview Steve Mariucci and the hiring of Mike McCarthy. At the time of the search for a new Head Coach I was, in fact, a fan of Jim Bates. I thought he did a good job with the defense in a year where there were not that many bright spots for The Packers and that he had done a pretty good job in Miami as their interim Head Coach. When the interview with Mike McCarthy was announced, I was like most laymen and searching for information about this guy I had previously heard little about. I knew he was the Offensive Coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers, which frankly, had me raising my eyebrows because they had been so bad offensively that year, so I looked him up. My reaction at the time was quite severe with disbelief, however, I will say here, very safely that out of all the candidates at the time, Mike McCarthy was probably the least qualified.
Again, don’t get me wrong, I think the guy has done a hell of a job. He has brought things to this team that Mike Sherman definitely didn’t. I thought that Mike Sherman was a horrible GM and half of a great Head Coach and half of a bad Head Coach. Mike Sherman was great with creating a complex offense with complex plays and had his teams mentally prepared. However, I believe that on the mental aspect of the game, he would simply out-think himself and on the physical part of the game, he did not have his teams prepared. Most evident by the rash of injuries his Packer teams would consistently sustain throughout his tenure as Head Coach. Mike McCarthy has his teams physically prepared for the season, as well as mentally prepared. My only rip on Mike McCarthy early was that his game plans, offense and plays were too simple, but he has always had the youngest team in the league and his offense has taken on more complexity as the years have progressed. I also understand his steadfast support of Ted Thompson, even though I don’t agree with it and think he should just stand back and be silent while the Ted Thompson\Brett Favre fight finds its conclusion. I know that he probably knows that, if it were not for what ever is driving Ted Thompson’s madness he would probably not be a Head Coach right now.
The point in this portion of my argument is just the respect level that Thompson seemingly has none of. The respect of what was a Head Coach in this league and the respect of your Hall of Fame QB that have given FAR more to the franchise than Ted Thompson has, or probably ever will, by a long shot. Favre didn’t ask the guy to hire Steve Mariucci, didn’t give any ultimatums. He simply asked Ted to interview him. Even if, as is now evident, that Ted Thompson would go into an interview with Steve Mariucci knowing that he would not be hiring him under any circumstances, what would have cost Ted to go ahead and do so? Even if it is just to placate the request of your star athlete? Obviously there was probably more to gain for the objectives of Ted Thompson to not interview Steve Mariucci than to do so. It seems that a clear message of disrespect to Brett Favre was the objective. It is the only thing that makes any sense in this scenario.
This last point is, what I feel, the pinnacle of the entire case against Ted Thompson and the vindication of Brett Favre. It has everything that you could ever need to exemplify how wrong Ted Thompson is and how bad he actually is for The Packers franchise and how much Brett Favre has earned and deserves his wishes in the current turmoil and how Brett has earned and deserves a vote from every TRUE Packer fan and every fan of the NFL as a whole.
The non-deal for Randy Moss. Yes, I know, there is a lot of bad blood between Randy and The Packer faithful and for good reason. However, at the end of the day, Randy Moss is still a unique talent and has been labeled a “Packer Killer” for many, many good reasons. Randy also had a reputation for taking plays off when he was not involved in those plays and that defenses would “key in” on Randy to be able to know if they needed to worry about him in the play or focus on the rest of The Vikings on a particular play. Definitely a stupid, thing for a player to do and obviously something that could not stand pat if Randy was to continue to play in the league and did not, to my knowledge, was a behavior that did not re-appear in his days at Oakland. There was also the rumor that because of Randy’s leg injury had slowed him down to a shadow of his former self and speed. A rumor obliterated by a pre-draft and pre-free agency workout he held that showed amazing speed in the 40.
Brett Favre and Randy share an agent through Bus Cook and through that contact Brett lobbied and worked very hard to get Randy Moss to Green Bay. He even got Randy to take 6.5Mil\year less to play in Green Bay AND if The Packers were still strapped for cash or unsure of the deal, Brett offered up that amount from his salary to get the deal with Randy done.
I want to pause for a moment and talk about what Brett Favre offered here just a little bit more in depth and go into some of the other things about this guy and what he has done for The Packers organization. This is not the first time Brett Favre has offered up some of his own money to get or keep other players so that The Packers would remain competitive and winning. Brett has so many various charities that he not only gives money to but also his own personal time. He has always stated his own personal high standards for ethics, and has, for the most part, adhered to them. At a time when the Commissioner of the NFL is constantly interjecting new rules governing player behavior both on and off the field to battle a severe image problem the NFL is receiving because of the actions of so many of its star athletes, Brett Favre is one of the few shinning examples of goodwill and sportsmanship the NFL has these days. When you take into account everything the man has done, given and sacrificed, both on and off the field, for The Packers, The NFL and to the community of mankind at large, why would anyone feel safe or justified in attacking this mans character? Better yet, why would anyone doubt Brett Favre over Ted Thompson?
There is so much evidence against Ted Thompson as both a person and a GM and there is so much evidence on the side of Brett Favre as a player, a valuable asset to the league and as a person. The fact that ANYONE buys into the media’s farce that Brett Favre is some kind of whinny, flip-flopper and that Ted Thompson is some messianic savior who’s every word and action is as strong and steadfast as it is wise and noble, only shows how boorish, immature and viciously ignorant so many of the populous at large have become.
Anyway, back to the Randy, non-deal. So Ted Thompson, after what could probably only be described as a few nano-seconds of thought, decided that this deal, of course, since coming from Brett Favre, must never see fruition. More than that, the wheels must have been turning immediately about how best to position himself to put himself in the best possible light and, simultaneously, but Brett Favre in the worst possible light. That would be with a series of lies, to both Brett and the media.
Now we come to this, the conflict of Brett Favre’s retirement\un-retirement. The first thing I would like to direct your attention to is the arbitrary March deadline Ted Thompson gave Brett Favre. There was no reason for this deadline whatsoever. I have heard so many stupid, “Box Score Only” sports reporters’ talk about how The Packers had to draft two QB’s to bolster the roster at QB after Brett left. Fact is, The Packers had to draft two QB’s period, with or without Brett Favre. They had pretty much no other QB on the roster going into this season, except Brett and Aaron. They had the free agent QB’s that were on the market come in and workout, but decided not to sign any of them. There was no other choice for Green Bay than to draft two QB’s, no matter what Brett would have or would not have decided, if given a more appropriate amount of time to make his decision.
I have also heard another stupid thing come from the “Box Score Only” hacks (you know, if you want to PAY someone to write about sports and actually GO or WATCH the games and KNOW something about which they are charged with writing about…pick me!) is that when Brett left they crafted this whole new offense specifically tailored to Aaron Rodgers. Complete fiction. I don’t see how anyone would believe that you put Aaron Rodgers holding the clipboard and learning an offense that you are going to change drastically the moment he comes in as the full time starter. Maybe they added a wrinkle or two for him and definitely they have expanded and adjusted the offense as they would from season to season normally. But to think they changed it radically because Brett retired and Aaron is taking over? No.
Now I understand to some extent why the media is trying to spin the situation the way that it has. It is mostly about the business end of the press. For example, Chris Mortensen of ESPN made a lot of high praise and “Favre like” comments about Jay Cutler when he was selected by The Broncos. The reason for that is that both Jay Cutler and Brett Favre share an agent in Bus Cook. By doing one of Bus Cooks’ clients a solid by giving them a PR scratch and mentioning another by using Brett as the marking stick to measure Jay, he has better assured himself of being scooped first by Bus Cook on any story involving Brett, Jay and, as applicable, The Packers and Bronco’s as well. That way if he is scooped first, the story lands on the stations and media he works for first and that station or media can lead with the story before anyone else increasing viewer-ship or readership or listener-ship. This adds to a medias’’ countable audience and that number goes to the rates those medias can justifiable charge for advertising time or space. I understand the business side of sports reporting, I truly do. However, there is a big difference between giving favorable editorial comments and opinions to best position the business and purporting lies or selective and slanted truth in order to accomplish the same goal. Take for instance Sports Radio 1250 in Milwaukee. They aren’t the only blatant violators of public trust; however, I needed to use someone as an example and these guys will do just fine.
One of the biggest recluses in the NFL today is Ted Thompson, not surprisingly. However, Sports Radio 1250 has Ted Thompson on fairly regularly, and I am sure, in turn for allowing themselves to be Ted’s personal PR machine, they get scooped on stories directly from him early, or at least that is the hope. Because of this they have done everything from cutting off local call-in, Brett Favre supporters early to allowing more distant (like a recent NY Jets fan) fans of other NFL teams to rant stupidity about Brett Favre, all for the benefit of Ted Thompson and their station. As applied to the media as a whole on a national level, the long and short of it is that it is in the better interest of the medias’ business to smear Brett than actually do any real informative and truthful reporting and uncloak the wolf that Ted Thompson actually is and has been.
When it comes to Brett Favre and whether or not he should be brought back and start this season, the bottom line is this: Forget every season and every record and all the legend status and talk that goes along with the guy. Forget that he earned every bit of it. Instead just think of this guy, who came in for the Packers last season, and led the team to tie their franchise record in wins and led them to the NFC Championship Game with pretty decent stats across the board in TD's, passing yards, passer rating and the like. Oh, and by the way, he was 70% or better of the teams’ entire offense for the better part of the first half of the season and won several games in the 4th quarter or overtime.
Now set that aside and, keep and eye on it, but put it to the side for just a moment. Yeah, right there to the left will be fine. Good. Now, think about all the NFL teams in history with all their varied leadership, from coaches, to GM's to ownership that has ever existed in the NFL since it's earliest inception. Got that in your mind now? Good. Now, just focus on only the most boneheaded teams, the worst teams and especially the worst led teams ever. OK, got your collection? Yeah there's some real stunners in there isn't there? Now try and find one where a team had that player at QB, that situation of the year preceding the coming season, and find the team that did NOT want that QB to come back. Find the example of the team that did not want the QB that led them the year before to those heights, with pretty much the same team coming back the next season, still ranked as either the youngest team in the league or one of the youngest teams in the league, and they did not want that QB back. They wanted instead the guy that they just like but has never even put one full game under his belt, and while he looks good, he has a hard time staying upright. Find that example in the past.
Can't? Yeah, me either...that is why we are looking at the most boneheaded NFL team in history. Bottom line. Period. Try and debate that one. Those that might should be warned about losing all credibility.
Now, go back and add everything that Brett Favre is to this situation and see if this just got a thousand times more...uh, more...jeeze...I think we have to invent a new word to describe this kind of stupidity and ignorance. Maybe like a medical condition, like Terminal Imbecilious.
Ted Thompson wants to see Brett Favre retired so his own guy can shine and Ted can be praised for finding the next QB legend. This is certainly a big departure from his quote that I listed at the top of this letter. Tell me, how is Ted Thompson supposed to tell a player that, while he is one of the best of his position, that the player should take a pay cut to play for Green Bay than he would probably get from the other teams around the league because it is what is best for the team as a whole and winning a Super Bowl? Or showing up for the voluntary workouts or any of the other stuff that every NFL team asks of its players and coaches for the sake of "what's best for the team", when HE can't even push his PRIDE aside for said goal?!?
If Ted Thompson was ever true to his word, which, by this documentation of his actions and decisions, he is obviously not, then whether he liked it or not, he would shut up and bring Brett back. Since he is not going to do that, I hope this letter finds the right hands and that those hands will be inspired to do what most definitely needs to be done. Either reign in or fire Ted Thompson. |