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).

Thompson’s Tight End Obsession

(Obsession is a sign of Alzheimer’s)

With all the problems with the Packers defense coming into the season you would think Packers General Manager Ted Thompson would have spent the offseason focusing like a laser to provide the Aaron Rodgers led offense with the last piece of the puzzle – a competent defense – to finally leap that last hurdle to seriously make a run for the Super Bowl and not just the playoffs.

FAKE NEWS – Thompson Style

The reports coming out of 1265 Lombardi Avenue are that Packers General Manager Ted Thompson and/or his personnel department tried to sign Brian Hoyer, but somehow the rascally Bill Belichik and the New England Patriots beat him to the punch and signed him to replace Jimmy Garappolo as the backup to Tom Brady. I don't believe a word of it.

But let's say it did happen then I can see just 1 reason or maybe 2 Hoyer might choose the Patriots over the Packers. The first could be Thompson only offered him a 1-year incentive laded contract instead of the 3-year contract he received from Belichik. The second could be he wanted to win and the Packers are going nowhere.

I can see the first happening, but the second doesn’t fit with Hoyer’s past. He wants to play and he would have taken over for Brett Hundley next week if given a chance and had a chance to work with the great receiver corps of the Packers and possible Offensive Rookie of the Year Aaron Jones for the next 7 games to show he still has a future as a starting quarterback.

It is also possible McCarthy informed him that Brett Hundley is the man and he would only be a hedge against him being injured. However, that didn’t happen because McCarthy said after not confirming the report by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network that the Packers tried to sign Hoyer, "From the time Aaron's been injured I've never once been involved in a conversation about bringing in a veteran quarterback. From the Minnesota to here today, the direction that we're going with the quarterbacks is Brett Hundley and the guys we have here."

I would tend to believe McCarthy on this because he is completely contradicting what the back channels told Rapoport. So I think the back channels (directed by the puppet master TT) were self-serving to get the pressure off Ted Thompson for not bringing in a veteran quarterback because no General Manager worth his salt would make a trade or a signing without discussing it with his head coach.

Thompson Fiddles While The Packers Are Burning

My suggestion to Packers General Manager Ted Thompson to sign quarterback Brian Hoyer fell upon predictably deaf ears. Thompson is an arrogant man, who only follows his own advice and even, in my opinion, turns down any advice he gets from the Packers fans across the nation just because he didn’t think of it and he feels the “Great Unwashed” are ignorant at best and are against him at worst.

So instead of solidifying the quarterback position after the Packers went from having the best quarterback in the league to one of the worst quarterback rooms in the NFL with half a season left he kept the status quo reaffirming his own genius.

Bill Belichik, who has been head coach and basically the general manager of the New England Patriots since 2000 has been to 7 Super Bowls during that span and won 5 making the Patriots a bonafied dynasty.

On the other hand, Ted Thompson has been general manager of the Packers since 2005 and has led the team from Title Town, USA to 1 Super Bowl making the Packers a bonafied disappointment and a team that never lived up to its potential led by 2 of the best quarterbacks in the history of the league.

Speaking of Belichik he took my advice and signed Hoyer. Anyone surprised at that? I’m not. The cream rises to the top and the turds (I mean curds) sink to the bottom.