A JSonline blog post on the topic.. here is to walking in Pioli's footsteps...
http://blogs.jsonline.com/packers/archive/2008/03/25/award-the-kiss-of-death-for-thompson.aspx
Award a bad omen for Thompson?
By Greg A. Bedard
Tuesday, Mar 25 2008, 04:38 PM
Green Bay - Packers general manager Ted Thompson might not want to pick up his Sporting News NFL Executive of the Year Award this week at the owners' meetings in Palm Beach. The previous winners, on the whole, haven't fared too well after snatching up their hardware.
Of the 13 previous winners, dating back to the advent of the salary cap in 1994, only two went as far or further in the playoffs the year after they won the award (Bill Polian with Carolina in 1996 and Scott Pioli in 2005). And we're not talking about a bunch of Super Bowl winners, either. Only four times in those 13 years did the executives win the Lombardi Trophy.
You'll see most of the carnage in the following chart, but here are the lowlights (Pioli's two wins in 2004 and '05 are counted separately):
- While only one of the Execs of the Year did not make the playoffs when they won the award (Polian in 1995), 6 of the 13 winners missed the playoffs entirely the year after they won the award, including the last two, Art Rooney II of the Steelers and Mickey Loomis of the Saints;
- Only 2 of the 13 advanced at least to the conference championship game the year after;
- Winning percentage of the teams when their GM won the award: 70.5%. The following year: 56.9%. The latter includes the Patriots' 14-2 repeat in 2004;
- Three previous winners (Carmen Policy, Jeff Diamond and Randy Mueller) are out of football at the moment;
- Only four still have the same job with the same team. Dan Rooney of the Steelers isn't as involved with the day-to-day operations.
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