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<blockquote data-quote="TJV" data-source="post: 590752" data-attributes="member: 4300"><p>I disagree. Harlan became president and CEO on June 5, 1989. Previously Robert Parins was president for about 7 years. In November of 1991, Harlan hired Wolf. But more importantly he changed the structure of the organization. When Harlan took over, HC Infante and Tom Braatz, the VP of football operations, shared power with interference from the executive board. Braatz wasn’t given the full power his title indicated because in ’87 Parins didn’t want to appoint him Gregg’s boss. One of the candidates for the job Braatz accepted in 1987 was Ron Wolf. I heard Harlan in a radio interview quite a while ago relate that he talked to Wolf at the time and as they drove Wolf back to the airport, Wolf told Harlan he wouldn’t accept the job because of the power-sharing arrangement. (That was an indication of Wolf’s intelligence and patience.)</p><p></p><p>So Harlan didn’t have control of the organization until he became president in June of ’89. Infante was going into his second year as HC and was about to embark on that “majik” season but by the middle of the ’91 season it was obvious Infante wasn’t the answer and Harlan decided to do more than just replace the HC and/or pseudo GM: He decided one football man was needed to run the football side of the organization. No more shared power and interference from the executive board would be either eliminated or minimized. One man had to be in control with the ability to fire and hire the HC, the employees in the personnel department, and the scouts. So he fired Braatz and left the fate of Infante in the hands of the new VP of Football Operations/GM. He had a handful of candidates for the job but his first priority was to hire Wolf, who at the time was director of player personnel of the Jets. Because Harlan gave Wolf total control of football operations, Wolf accepted the job. Wolf wouldn’t have come to Green Bay unless Harlan first fixed the organizational structure and if Wolf wouldn't have accepted the job, someone else would have had total control, a very important change IMO.</p><p></p><p>Harlan did make mistakes. In addition to “falling in love” with Mike Sherman to the degree he was unwilling to hire a VP/GM who would be his boss when Wolf left (kind of repeating the mistake Parins made regarding Braatz and Gregg), he was complicit to some degree in anointing John Jones to replace him in 2007 (which caused an employee “revolt”). Harlan did fix the mistake of elevating Sherman with the hiring of Thompson (who was required to retain Sherman for one season as a condition of his taking the job), and the hiring of Murphy fixed the Jones situation.</p><p></p><p>But Harlan deserves credit for two huge accomplishments in Packers history: Fixing and then “re-fixing” the structure of the organization and his campaign for the referendum to fund the renovation of Lambeau Field. He campaigned tirelessly: He'd greet factory workers at 5AM and campaign in restaurants and coffee shops around town. He went door-to-door and Harlan famously accepted phone calls from fans during his entire tenure. He was convinced the renovation kept the Packers competitive financially, an argument I agreed with at the time.</p><p></p><p>Weigh the positives and negatives of Harlan’s career as president and CEO and it’s not even close. Of course we can’t know what would have happened in the past if one event were changed. But <strong>IMO</strong> without Harlan it’s <em>very unlikely</em> Wolf would have ever come to Green Bay. No Wolf, no Holmgren; No Wolf, no Favre, etc. And who knows about the referendum which passed 53% to 47%. Considering the percentage of Packers fans in Brown county, hardly a slam dunk.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TJV, post: 590752, member: 4300"] I disagree. Harlan became president and CEO on June 5, 1989. Previously Robert Parins was president for about 7 years. In November of 1991, Harlan hired Wolf. But more importantly he changed the structure of the organization. When Harlan took over, HC Infante and Tom Braatz, the VP of football operations, shared power with interference from the executive board. Braatz wasn’t given the full power his title indicated because in ’87 Parins didn’t want to appoint him Gregg’s boss. One of the candidates for the job Braatz accepted in 1987 was Ron Wolf. I heard Harlan in a radio interview quite a while ago relate that he talked to Wolf at the time and as they drove Wolf back to the airport, Wolf told Harlan he wouldn’t accept the job because of the power-sharing arrangement. (That was an indication of Wolf’s intelligence and patience.) So Harlan didn’t have control of the organization until he became president in June of ’89. Infante was going into his second year as HC and was about to embark on that “majik” season but by the middle of the ’91 season it was obvious Infante wasn’t the answer and Harlan decided to do more than just replace the HC and/or pseudo GM: He decided one football man was needed to run the football side of the organization. No more shared power and interference from the executive board would be either eliminated or minimized. One man had to be in control with the ability to fire and hire the HC, the employees in the personnel department, and the scouts. So he fired Braatz and left the fate of Infante in the hands of the new VP of Football Operations/GM. He had a handful of candidates for the job but his first priority was to hire Wolf, who at the time was director of player personnel of the Jets. Because Harlan gave Wolf total control of football operations, Wolf accepted the job. Wolf wouldn’t have come to Green Bay unless Harlan first fixed the organizational structure and if Wolf wouldn't have accepted the job, someone else would have had total control, a very important change IMO. Harlan did make mistakes. In addition to “falling in love” with Mike Sherman to the degree he was unwilling to hire a VP/GM who would be his boss when Wolf left (kind of repeating the mistake Parins made regarding Braatz and Gregg), he was complicit to some degree in anointing John Jones to replace him in 2007 (which caused an employee “revolt”). Harlan did fix the mistake of elevating Sherman with the hiring of Thompson (who was required to retain Sherman for one season as a condition of his taking the job), and the hiring of Murphy fixed the Jones situation. But Harlan deserves credit for two huge accomplishments in Packers history: Fixing and then “re-fixing” the structure of the organization and his campaign for the referendum to fund the renovation of Lambeau Field. He campaigned tirelessly: He'd greet factory workers at 5AM and campaign in restaurants and coffee shops around town. He went door-to-door and Harlan famously accepted phone calls from fans during his entire tenure. He was convinced the renovation kept the Packers competitive financially, an argument I agreed with at the time. Weigh the positives and negatives of Harlan’s career as president and CEO and it’s not even close. Of course we can’t know what would have happened in the past if one event were changed. But [B]IMO[/B] without Harlan it’s [I]very unlikely[/I] Wolf would have ever come to Green Bay. No Wolf, no Holmgren; No Wolf, no Favre, etc. And who knows about the referendum which passed 53% to 47%. Considering the percentage of Packers fans in Brown county, hardly a slam dunk. [/QUOTE]
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