The Big Four on the management team of the corporation that is the Green Bay Packers are president and CEO Mark Murphy, general manager Ted Thompson, coach Mike McCarthy, and defensive coordinator Dom Capers. Because McCarthy takes direct charge of the offense, Capers has been given broad authority over all defensive matters, thus raising him a full level above the offensive coordinator and all the other coaches and staff.
The foursome, comprising a straight-line chain of command, has been intact for eight full years now, since Capers joined the other three in 2009. At this point, I view them not so much as four different and diverse individuals, but more as one monolithic management unit.
Mark Murphy, 61, has been the Green Bay Packers’ president and CEO since December 2007. Murphy formerly played safety with the Redskins from 1977 to 1984 (two Pro Bowls, 27 interceptions). While still a player, he got an MBA in 1983 from American University, and later followed up with a law degree from Georgetown in 1988. Murphy was the head exec for Green Bay’s Super Bowl XLV win, and he played on the Redskins team that won Super Bowl XVII.
As an aside, Murphy, while a player rep, served on the players’ bargaining committee during the strike-shortened 1982 season. When the Redskins released him after the 1983 season, and no one else signed him, some felt he was ostracized due to his union activities.
Ted Thompson, 64, was selected as general manager by former Packers’ president Bob Harlan in January 2005, so he’s starting his 12th year as GM. Thompson was a linebacker with the Houston Oilers from 1975-84. He first joined the Packers organization in 1992, and has served them as an assistant director and director of pro personnel, and as director of player personnel. From 2000-04 he was the VP of football operations with the Seahawks.
Mike McCarthy, 53, was named the team’s head coach by Thompson in January 2006, so this will be his 11th year at the helm. He was once a tight end at Baker University in Kansas. McCarthy went straight to work after college as a graduate assistant for the Fort Hays State football team. He also had a brief earlier stint with Green Bay, as quarterbacks coach in 1999. After that, he moved on to be the Saints’ offensive coordinator, and then was the OC for the 49ers before assuming his current job. He’s been associated with three college football teams and four NFL teams, and he’s been an NFL coach since 1993. He guided the Packers to a Super Bowl XLV win.
Dom Capers, 66, joined the Packers as defensive coordinator in January 2009. In his 32 years in the league, he has been on one Super Bowl winning team: the Packers of 2010. Capers attended Mount Union College in Ohio, where he played linebacker and defensive tackle.
In sum, Murphy is the intellectual of the group. Murphy and Thompson each enjoyed NFL playing careers of eight or more years, and all four men were college players. The four have been employed at college or pro football operations for a cumulative total of 125 years – 25 for Murphy and Thompson, 30 for McCarthy, and 45 for Capers. I don’t see where any of the four have taken any time away from football in those 125 years.
Other than Murphy, each has come up through the ranks, working at a great many coaching, assistant, or coordinator jobs. Each can be said to have achieved a lot of success in their football careers.
Almost without exception, I don’t believe any of the Packers’ Big Four have ever worked as adults at any job unrelated to football. Murphy did work at a couple of universities, as athletic director, just prior to joining the Packers. McCarthy might have poured a few beers at his dad’s tavern.
Does the Definition Fit?
Hidebound, adjective – unwilling or unable to change because of tradition or convention; narrow or rigid in opinion; oriented toward or confined to the past; conservative; orthodox, conventional; inflexible.
Our foursome has football experience in abundance, football is all they know – which can be a curse as well as a blessing. What follows are a few questions to ponder.
- Given their ages (all but one in their 60s), does a generation gap exist, whereby there is difficulty in understanding, and being understood, by players one or two generations removed?
- Are they too secure in their jobs? While storms of criticism have rained down with each successive year of playoff losses, none of the four appear to have ever been in danger of losing a job.
- Has the group succumbed to the Peter Principal, whereby they have risen to their level of incompetence, such that making the playoffs is the farthest this group can now take the Packers?
- Have they become hopelessly stuck in their ways, and lost all receptiveness to fresh ideas and creativity (Ex., reluctance to sign free agent veterans from other teams; totally predictable play-calling)?
- Are they just too darn stubborn and defensive, to listen? It was made clear this year by the QB that the team doesn’t pay any attention to non-locker-room “outsiders.”
- The group has a well-deserved reputation of releasing players who are past their prime, but still capable of a reduced levels of performance. Should this principle also apply to management?
- Has burnout set in? In the last several years, who among the four has displayed any spark of unrestrained emotion or enthusiasm, a rush of adrenaline, or an almost boyish love for the game that infused the organization during the early Favre years?
- Has football become all business and no fun within the executive and coaches’ offices of the Packers?
- From the CEO on down, are the bosses holding their charges accountable for their job performance? Are the one or two assistant coaches fired after each season just sacrificial lambs used to deflect from higher management’s inadequacies?
- Have the four gotten way too cozy in their relationships with each other? Are there no meaningful checks and balances in the current setup?
The Ultimate Question
If you agree that this foursome has become the very definition of hidebound, do you honestly believe the Packers will ever again contend for the Super Bowl unless several of the four are replaced by younger, fresher, and more enthusiastic, progressive, and creative people?
Or, until this happens, are Packers fans consigned to living out Groundhog Day year after year?