There Are Legacies And Then There Are Legacies

There are the New York Yankees in MLB with 27 titles, the Montreal Canadians in the NHL with 24 titles, the Boston Celtics in the NBA with 17 titles, including 8 in a row and Brazil with 5 World Cups championships, but the most storied team in the history of sports is the 13-time World Champion Green Bay Packers from the smallest town (105,139 population) to field a major sports team and the only sports franchise to be owned by stockholders and not by a deep pocket owner.

2012 Dancing With The Stars Champion Donald Driver

The Packers story is the story of the NFL itself. The immortal Curly Lambeau founded the team in 1919 and joined the fledgling NFL 2 years later. It was by shear will and personality that Lambeau kept the team alive as general manager and as coach he built a team that along with NFL founder George “Papa Bear” Halas ruled the league during his official 29 years at the helm (1921-1949).

Lambeau’s Packers won 6 championships (1929, 1930, 1931, 1936, 1939, 1944) becoming the first and only team to win 3 championships in a row until the Packers under Vince Lombardi did it again in 1965, 1966, 1967. In comparison Halas won 6 championships (1921, 1933, 1940, 1941, 1946, 1963) over his 48 years as coach of the Bears (1920-67).

Many other coaches and teams have tried and failed. The immortal Canton Bulldogs 1922-23; the Bears 1940-41; the Eagles 1948-49; the Lions 1952-53; the Browns 1954-55, the Colts 1958-59; and the Lombardi Packers of 1961 and 1962 of the pre-Super Bowl era.

Only the Lions even made the championship game for the 3rd straight time, but lost to Paul Brown’s Browns in 1954. Brown’s Browns hold the record for advancing to the championship game 5 straight seasons (1951-55) losing the 1st 3 times to the Los Angeles Rams and the Lions twice before beating the Lions and the Rams.

The Giants of that era were the most dominate team playing in the championship game 5 times in 6 years losing to the Colts in 1958 and 1959 and then to the Packers in 1961 and 1962 and the Bears in 1963 (George Halas’ last championship).

During the Super Bowl era the Steelers 1975-76; the Steelers 1979-80; the 49ers 1989-90; the Cowboys 1994-94; the Broncos 1998-99; and the Patriots 2004-05 had chances to win three straight. However, none of those teams made it back to the Super Bowl for the third year.

Then there was the Bills of 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 as the only team to advance to the Super Bowl four consecutive years, but the Bills lost all 4 times joining the 1958-63 Giants who lost 5 times in 6 years, as the most frustrated good teams in NFL history.

Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi are still the only coaches to win 3 straight championships and both coached the team from Title Town, USA.

But that is ancient history (50 years since Lombardi won Super Bowl II). The 13-time World Champion Green Bay Packers from Title Town, USA went through a 24-year period from 1968 to 1992 that I call the “Wilderness Years” when the once proud franchise was the joke of the sports world.

Then Bob Harlan hired Ron Wolf and he restored the Packers legend with the hiring of Mike Holmgren and the trading for Brett Favre and the biggest free agent signing at the time Reggie White. In 6 years the Packers won the Super Bowl and advanced to the Super Bowl the next year only to lose to the Broncos.

Holmgren left a year later after the 1998 season and Wolf retired 3 years later. The Packers then settled into the Mike Sherman era where the Packers put up good records, but fell short in the playoffs, including losing the first playoff game at Lambeau Field in 2002.

Harlan fired Sherman as general manager in 2005 and hired Ted Thompson. Thompson then fired Sherman after 1 season and hired Mike McCarthy. Bob Harlan then retired and Mark Murphy was hired as President and CEO in 2007. Three years later the Trynamic Trio led the Packers back to the Super Bowl winning the Packers 13th championship. Title Town was back.

However, since 2010 the Murphy/Thompson front office has settled into the comfortable world of being “just good enough” to be mentioned as a Super Bowl contender by the uniformed national media every year when even with the best quarterback in football they were only a playoff contender.

I want more and with 2 of the best quarterbacks in NFL history leading the Pack for the past 13 seasons the Packers should have won the Super Bowl in 2007, 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2016 and maybe even 2012. This should have been the 3rd Golden Age joining the Curly Lambeau’s 1929-1939 dynasty and Vince Lombardi’s 1960-1967 dynasty.

However, all we’ve got was 1 Super Bowl appearance and 1 Super Bowl championship. Sad isn’t it. And we, the Packer Backers who feel the past 13 seasons should have been the greatest dynasty of them all with maybe 6 titles in 10 seasons, are ridiculed and attacked by the “In Ted We Trust” crowd or as I call them “Tedders” when we criticize Ted Thompson and, in my case, Larry “Baghdad Bob” McCarren, but I digress.

All the arrogance and mismanagement of the past 7 years have led us to the 2017 Packers. Thompson has forgotten how the Packers got out of the Wilderness to begin with and how the signing of Charles Woodson among others got the Packers back to the Super Bowl after 13 years. The first signs of his mental illness came in 2007 when I think if he had acquired Randy Moss like Brett Favre wanted the Packers would have won the Super Bowl one last time for the old warrior. And if he had Favre might have retired happy and stayed retired thusly avoiding the ugliness of the Favre divorce.

A parallel can be drawn to Thompson not re-signing Jared Cook like Aaron Rodgers begged him to. With Rodgers out of the lineup the play on the field will now land directly in the laps of Thompson and McCarthy and Dom Capers. The other 52 + 10 players were all chosen by Thompson and the remaining 10 starters on offense and the defense are expecting to be given an offensive game plan that fits Brett Hundley’s abilities and not Rodgers’ who is widely known as the best in the game and a defensive scheme that can stop the pass and get off the field on 3rd down.

So the Packers go into the Monday night’s game at Lambeau Field on Lombardi Avenue against the Lions with the season on the line led by Brett (no relation to Brett Favre) Hundley and his 40.5 quarterback rating. Mike McCarthy had better have spent the last 2 weeks preparing a great game plan or the week ends with the Vikings at 6-2, the Lions at 4-4, the Packers at 4-4 and Da Bears at 3-5.

One more digression:

When you come to historic Green Bay the sign that greets you lets you know you are entering a town of champions, the 13-time NFL champion Packers and the Dancing With The Stars champ Donald Driver. You then turn on Lombardi Avenue, which takes you to Lambeau Field

East of Lambeau is the Walk of Legends where you find Tony Canadeo Run, Brett Favre Pass, Reggie White Way and Holmgren Way celebrating the excellence that is the Green Bay Packers.

When this chapter is finally put to rest there should be 2 more signs added. Aaron Rodgers Pass will either intersect with Lombardi Avenue if he wins more Super Bowl titles or at the very least added to the Walk of Legends.

And then there is Ted Thompson, who at 13 years and counting has the second longest tenure as General Manager behind only the immortal Curly Lambeau and even Curly was fired (remember that "Tedders").

So no matter what my personal feelings are about Thompson's job performance the past 7 years I still think TT deserves to have some sort of a memorial and I think I know the perfect spot that I think fits his achievements. It should be in Lambeau Field for bringing the 4th Super Bowl title back to Title Town, USA in his 1st 6 years at the helm and it should also reflect what has happened in the last 7 years. 

So in 16 years (that's how long it took for Ron Wolf to honored with Ron Wolf Way) hopefully Ted Thompson will be in retirement by then considering Mark Murphy continues to say he will be General Manager as long as he wants to be (if he still is General Manager in 2033 that would be his 29th year at the helm leaving him 2 years shy of Curly Lambeau and he would also be 90 years old beating George Halas, who was still owner when he died at the age of 88 in 1983.

So in 2033 or 16 years after he retired or if he still is General Manager at that time immediately after he retires a ceremony will be held with these appropriate signs being put up all over Lambeau Field.