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Cheesehead
From Monday's 10/17/05 Press-Gazette:
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Q&A with Packers President Bob Harlan
When Packers President Bob Harlan takes angry calls from fans, he reminds them of the team’s success during the last 13 seasons.
By Mike Vandermause
PackersNews.com
When the Green Bay Packers opened the season with four consecutive losses, team President Bob Harlan heard about it.
During his time leading the Packers organization, Harlan has made a point of staying connected with fans, even if it means fielding angry phone calls.
In an interview on Thursday, Harlan talked about his response to fans unhappy with the Packers’ 1-4 record. He also assessed the performance of General Manager Ted Thompson and the job security of coach Mike Sherman, and reflected on the Packers’ decision not to re-sign guard Mike Wahle in the offseason.
Did you get a lot of phone calls after the 0-4 start and what was the general sentiment?
Bob Harlan: I did, I did. I got a call one day, ‘Fire Sherman and hire Favre to be the coach.’ I thought, ‘Gee, Brett doesn’t even like going to the quarterback meeting, so how’s he going to handle that?’ But I did, and I said to a lot of the people who I talked to, ‘Hey remember, since ’92 this has been the best record in the National Football League. There’s 13 straight seasons of above .500 football. This has been pretty good football.
One guy called me last week and he says, ‘I’ve been disturbed for years about this.’ I said, ‘Now wait a minute, the last four years we were 12-4, 12-4, 10-6 and 10-6.’ I said, ‘It sounds to me like you’re tough to satisfy.’ ‘Well, maybe I am.’ It’s lean now, and it’s the same thing I told people last year. When we were 1-4 last year, I said to people, you know we’re not going to do anything rash. When the season’s over we’ll take a look at it. If we think we should do something, we will. And they were fine with that. That seemed to satisfy them in the early stages of the season.
Well, when we lost to the Vikings (in the playoffs), I thought, boy it’s going to get noisy again, losing in the playoffs and it’s to Minnesota and everything. Five days later, we hired Ted Thompson, took one job away from Mike, again it was quiet. I find that if you tell the people, ‘Listen, we’re as upset as you are, but we’re not going to do anything that we’re going to look back later and regret. Let’s take some time and look at it. And then I do remind them of the past success. Everything isn’t bleak, it’s been pretty darn good here.
Is there any complaint that bothers you?
Harlan: It bothers me when, and I tell fans this, they’ll act like instead of 13 great seasons that we’ve had 13 miserable seasons. I’ll say, now wait a minute, you’re letting five weeks, or four weeks, tarnish everything that’s gone on in the past. Let’s look at this from a reasonable standpoint. And we talk about it. And I think we’re doing better when we hang up than when we started.
Has Ted Thompson been everything you thought he would be as general manager?
Harlan: He’s very solid. He’s got a lot of Ron Wolf in him. He takes that same approach. He’s very careful about how he wants to build the club but knows how he wants to build it. Very solid in the way he approaches the game. I’m delighted. He’s exactly what we needed. And I’m more convinced than ever that you need two good people to do those jobs. I’ll tell you what, one of the things that concerned me was Mike’s health a year ago. And now I look in the paper at people like Ray Rhodes and Mike Holmgren and Mike Martz, and the list is growing of coaches who are fighting health problems. I told Mike at the time I took the job away, I said, ‘I want you to spend more time with your family. I don’t want this to become a health problem.’ I think some of that’s been brought back to me in the last couple of months seeing what’s happened to other coaches.
Ted is more even-keeled than Ron Wolf was. Is it a good quality to be even-keeled?
Harlan: I sit with Ted on gameday. It’s interesting. Ron would kind of scream and yell and say things that you know you’d think, maybe we better close the window. But Ted is much calmer about it, but you can hear the comments he makes. ... You can hear him almost wanting to be on the sideline saying this. But he does it in a very calm manner. If it doesn’t work, he’s not explosive. But yet he studies it very carefully, what’s going on, the plays, and he and I will sit down during the week and talk about things he likes and doesn’t like, and so forth. He’s total football, and I like that about him.
One of the biggest criticisms of Ted is, in retrospect, that maybe a better effort should have been made to re-sign guard Mike Wahle. Have you had discussions with him about things like that?
Harlan: We have. We talked about that, we talked about before Cletidus Hunt was let go. I think Ted should get some credit for letting Cletidus Hunt go. A lot of people wouldn’t have done that, say we’ve got a lot of money invested in the guy. And here’s what I like. If he’s made a mistake, he’ll admit it and move on. Now, Cletidus Hunt wasn’t his mistake, but yet as he looked at it, he said, ‘This is a mistake keeping this guy here. We’re going to move him.’ And I said I’m fine with that.
You know, I think the guards are getting too much blame for the problems we’ve had. There’s been a lot of different problems. You know we started out this way last year, and we finished strong. This division can be won. Taking a look at it, it’s going to be very competitive. We’ve got five division games left in the year. We can still make noise in the North, and I feel we will. I think as long as you’ve got No. 4 playing quarterback, the defense has shown great life I think in the last couple weeks. I think Jim Bates has done a wonderful job with that. I’m still optimistic. I’m always optimistic. I always think we’re going to be all right and find a way to get out of this.
Is there a good working relationship between Ted and Mike as far as roster decisions? Does Ted make the final call on everything?
Harlan: He’s running the football operation. But it’s like Ron. Ron ran the football operation too, but if the coach had a player he really wanted, Ron let him do it and Ted does the same thing. The thing that took Ted so long before he was ready to extend Mike’s contract, was to (determine), can we sit down together and work together and work through situations like that. And once he became convinced he could and they could work together and be palatable, then he was ready to extend the contract. Ted’s not going to force anybody on him, but if there comes a decision sometimes between two players, maybe Ted is the one who has to make it, but I know he gives Mike leeway, and I know Ron Wolf gave Mike Holmgren and Mike Sherman leeway.
If the Packers finish with a losing record and don’t make the playoffs, do you feel Mike Sherman’s job is still secure?
Harlan: I would take you back to when we had Lindy Infante with three years to go on his contract, when Ron Wolf came in he said, ‘I want to make a change.’ And so basically for three years we were paying two head coaches. I feel if you’re going to get somebody talented to run your football operation, you’ve got to let them truly run it. You can’t be stopping him from trying to make a (decision). Let’s face it, Ron Wolf came in and wanted to make some huge decisions in his early days. He wanted to let Lindy go with three years remaining on his contract, he wanted to trade a No. 1 (draft pick) for a quarterback from Atlanta that nobody every heard of, and then spend a great deal of money on a Reggie White.
They were wonderful moves. Ron would say to me, ‘Are you OK if we do this?’ And I said, ‘I told you it was your team to run. You’ve got full authority. I’m not going to butt in on it now.’ I feel the same way with Ted. Ted’s comfortable with the way we are. Mike Sherman’s coaching record has been marvelous. And you know the system is set up that you’re supposed to hit some down times, and the Green Bay Packers have been fortunate. Because this is the one franchise, when we got to free agency and the salary cap, everybody said, hey, the first franchise that’s going to suffer is going to be Green Bay. That hasn’t happened. In fact, we’ve had the best record since 1992, and we’ve had the 13 straight years of (non-losing seasons). It’s worked extremely well for us.
Some of that success has been catching up to us. We’ve been drafting late for a number of years. And a lot of our opponents have been drafting early for a number of years. That should balance things out. So no, I think our football people have done a marvelous job of keeping us among the top teams in the league. And I think you have to be very careful if you have one lean season, is this the time to panic and jump off the wagon or what? I think Ted is steady enough that that’s the approach he’ll take. He’ll make a very steady decision on everything.
What’s the biggest regret you’ve had during your tenure?
Harlan: I guess the biggest regret quite honestly is that we didn’t win Super Bowl XXXII. We were heavily favored. I’m convinced we were a better team. And we didn’t get it done. That loss has always tormented me. It torments Ron Wolf, too. He and I talk about it. That’s my biggest regret, we didn’t win two (Super Bowls), because we were good enough to win two, and we should have.
Does John Jones (who will replace Harlan in 2007) have big shoes to fill?
Harlan: I have such a great love for this organization. I hope I have and I think I have picked someone who can continue to bring great things to the Green Bay Packers. That’s what I want is a great, great future for this franchise.
----------------------------
Q&A with Packers President Bob Harlan
When Packers President Bob Harlan takes angry calls from fans, he reminds them of the team’s success during the last 13 seasons.
By Mike Vandermause
PackersNews.com
When the Green Bay Packers opened the season with four consecutive losses, team President Bob Harlan heard about it.
During his time leading the Packers organization, Harlan has made a point of staying connected with fans, even if it means fielding angry phone calls.
In an interview on Thursday, Harlan talked about his response to fans unhappy with the Packers’ 1-4 record. He also assessed the performance of General Manager Ted Thompson and the job security of coach Mike Sherman, and reflected on the Packers’ decision not to re-sign guard Mike Wahle in the offseason.
Did you get a lot of phone calls after the 0-4 start and what was the general sentiment?
Bob Harlan: I did, I did. I got a call one day, ‘Fire Sherman and hire Favre to be the coach.’ I thought, ‘Gee, Brett doesn’t even like going to the quarterback meeting, so how’s he going to handle that?’ But I did, and I said to a lot of the people who I talked to, ‘Hey remember, since ’92 this has been the best record in the National Football League. There’s 13 straight seasons of above .500 football. This has been pretty good football.
One guy called me last week and he says, ‘I’ve been disturbed for years about this.’ I said, ‘Now wait a minute, the last four years we were 12-4, 12-4, 10-6 and 10-6.’ I said, ‘It sounds to me like you’re tough to satisfy.’ ‘Well, maybe I am.’ It’s lean now, and it’s the same thing I told people last year. When we were 1-4 last year, I said to people, you know we’re not going to do anything rash. When the season’s over we’ll take a look at it. If we think we should do something, we will. And they were fine with that. That seemed to satisfy them in the early stages of the season.
Well, when we lost to the Vikings (in the playoffs), I thought, boy it’s going to get noisy again, losing in the playoffs and it’s to Minnesota and everything. Five days later, we hired Ted Thompson, took one job away from Mike, again it was quiet. I find that if you tell the people, ‘Listen, we’re as upset as you are, but we’re not going to do anything that we’re going to look back later and regret. Let’s take some time and look at it. And then I do remind them of the past success. Everything isn’t bleak, it’s been pretty darn good here.
Is there any complaint that bothers you?
Harlan: It bothers me when, and I tell fans this, they’ll act like instead of 13 great seasons that we’ve had 13 miserable seasons. I’ll say, now wait a minute, you’re letting five weeks, or four weeks, tarnish everything that’s gone on in the past. Let’s look at this from a reasonable standpoint. And we talk about it. And I think we’re doing better when we hang up than when we started.
Has Ted Thompson been everything you thought he would be as general manager?
Harlan: He’s very solid. He’s got a lot of Ron Wolf in him. He takes that same approach. He’s very careful about how he wants to build the club but knows how he wants to build it. Very solid in the way he approaches the game. I’m delighted. He’s exactly what we needed. And I’m more convinced than ever that you need two good people to do those jobs. I’ll tell you what, one of the things that concerned me was Mike’s health a year ago. And now I look in the paper at people like Ray Rhodes and Mike Holmgren and Mike Martz, and the list is growing of coaches who are fighting health problems. I told Mike at the time I took the job away, I said, ‘I want you to spend more time with your family. I don’t want this to become a health problem.’ I think some of that’s been brought back to me in the last couple of months seeing what’s happened to other coaches.
Ted is more even-keeled than Ron Wolf was. Is it a good quality to be even-keeled?
Harlan: I sit with Ted on gameday. It’s interesting. Ron would kind of scream and yell and say things that you know you’d think, maybe we better close the window. But Ted is much calmer about it, but you can hear the comments he makes. ... You can hear him almost wanting to be on the sideline saying this. But he does it in a very calm manner. If it doesn’t work, he’s not explosive. But yet he studies it very carefully, what’s going on, the plays, and he and I will sit down during the week and talk about things he likes and doesn’t like, and so forth. He’s total football, and I like that about him.
One of the biggest criticisms of Ted is, in retrospect, that maybe a better effort should have been made to re-sign guard Mike Wahle. Have you had discussions with him about things like that?
Harlan: We have. We talked about that, we talked about before Cletidus Hunt was let go. I think Ted should get some credit for letting Cletidus Hunt go. A lot of people wouldn’t have done that, say we’ve got a lot of money invested in the guy. And here’s what I like. If he’s made a mistake, he’ll admit it and move on. Now, Cletidus Hunt wasn’t his mistake, but yet as he looked at it, he said, ‘This is a mistake keeping this guy here. We’re going to move him.’ And I said I’m fine with that.
You know, I think the guards are getting too much blame for the problems we’ve had. There’s been a lot of different problems. You know we started out this way last year, and we finished strong. This division can be won. Taking a look at it, it’s going to be very competitive. We’ve got five division games left in the year. We can still make noise in the North, and I feel we will. I think as long as you’ve got No. 4 playing quarterback, the defense has shown great life I think in the last couple weeks. I think Jim Bates has done a wonderful job with that. I’m still optimistic. I’m always optimistic. I always think we’re going to be all right and find a way to get out of this.
Is there a good working relationship between Ted and Mike as far as roster decisions? Does Ted make the final call on everything?
Harlan: He’s running the football operation. But it’s like Ron. Ron ran the football operation too, but if the coach had a player he really wanted, Ron let him do it and Ted does the same thing. The thing that took Ted so long before he was ready to extend Mike’s contract, was to (determine), can we sit down together and work together and work through situations like that. And once he became convinced he could and they could work together and be palatable, then he was ready to extend the contract. Ted’s not going to force anybody on him, but if there comes a decision sometimes between two players, maybe Ted is the one who has to make it, but I know he gives Mike leeway, and I know Ron Wolf gave Mike Holmgren and Mike Sherman leeway.
If the Packers finish with a losing record and don’t make the playoffs, do you feel Mike Sherman’s job is still secure?
Harlan: I would take you back to when we had Lindy Infante with three years to go on his contract, when Ron Wolf came in he said, ‘I want to make a change.’ And so basically for three years we were paying two head coaches. I feel if you’re going to get somebody talented to run your football operation, you’ve got to let them truly run it. You can’t be stopping him from trying to make a (decision). Let’s face it, Ron Wolf came in and wanted to make some huge decisions in his early days. He wanted to let Lindy go with three years remaining on his contract, he wanted to trade a No. 1 (draft pick) for a quarterback from Atlanta that nobody every heard of, and then spend a great deal of money on a Reggie White.
They were wonderful moves. Ron would say to me, ‘Are you OK if we do this?’ And I said, ‘I told you it was your team to run. You’ve got full authority. I’m not going to butt in on it now.’ I feel the same way with Ted. Ted’s comfortable with the way we are. Mike Sherman’s coaching record has been marvelous. And you know the system is set up that you’re supposed to hit some down times, and the Green Bay Packers have been fortunate. Because this is the one franchise, when we got to free agency and the salary cap, everybody said, hey, the first franchise that’s going to suffer is going to be Green Bay. That hasn’t happened. In fact, we’ve had the best record since 1992, and we’ve had the 13 straight years of (non-losing seasons). It’s worked extremely well for us.
Some of that success has been catching up to us. We’ve been drafting late for a number of years. And a lot of our opponents have been drafting early for a number of years. That should balance things out. So no, I think our football people have done a marvelous job of keeping us among the top teams in the league. And I think you have to be very careful if you have one lean season, is this the time to panic and jump off the wagon or what? I think Ted is steady enough that that’s the approach he’ll take. He’ll make a very steady decision on everything.
What’s the biggest regret you’ve had during your tenure?
Harlan: I guess the biggest regret quite honestly is that we didn’t win Super Bowl XXXII. We were heavily favored. I’m convinced we were a better team. And we didn’t get it done. That loss has always tormented me. It torments Ron Wolf, too. He and I talk about it. That’s my biggest regret, we didn’t win two (Super Bowls), because we were good enough to win two, and we should have.
Does John Jones (who will replace Harlan in 2007) have big shoes to fill?
Harlan: I have such a great love for this organization. I hope I have and I think I have picked someone who can continue to bring great things to the Green Bay Packers. That’s what I want is a great, great future for this franchise.
