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Rob Demovsky
GREEN BAY, Wis. — If Jack Kent Cooke may have seen what Mark Murphy has been doing for the previous 18 years …
“I believe he’d in all probability be rolling over in his grave,” Murphy chuckled in a current interview with ESPN.
For Cooke, the late Washington proprietor when Murphy was a defensive again from 1977 to 1984, Murphy was all the things an NFL proprietor despised in a participant throughout that period. He was extremely educated at Colgate College and served as Washington’s participant consultant to the NFL Gamers Affiliation. In that position, he helped lead the gamers’ strike of 1982.
“He known as me a communist as a result of I wished the gamers to share revenues with the homeowners,” Murphy stated. “There was one time at a welcome-back luncheon we had in Washington proper across the time of the strike, and he stated, ‘Mark Murphy is a wonderful younger man, however I don’t want him as a companion.'”
He chuckled once more: “The truth that I went into administration …”
Murphy may need gotten the final chortle. Since Dec. 3, 2007, when Murphy was named president and CEO of the Inexperienced Bay Packers, he has primarily served because the proprietor of the NFL’s solely publicly owned franchise — though his spouse, Laurie, calls him a “phoner” as in a “phony proprietor” or an “proprietor with out the cash.”
His tenure will finish later this month, when he reaches the Packers’ necessary retirement age of 70 for the board of administrators, of which Murphy serves as the top. He’ll formally hand over management of the group to successor Ed Coverage on the group’s annual shareholders assembly on July 25.
Murphy’s Packers legacy contains important modifications in Inexperienced Bay and a Tremendous Bowl championship.
IN NEARLY 18 years in Inexperienced Bay, Murphy presided over a Tremendous Bowl-winning season, two considerably contentious quarterback transitions, a head coach firing and hiring, and a normal supervisor hiring that additionally coincided with a radical shift within the group’s organizational construction.
And people have been simply the soccer choices.
On the enterprise aspect, Murphy oversaw the event of the Titletown District — a industrial and residential space that opened in 2017 adjoining to Lambeau Discipline the place beforehand a Kmart retailer, a couple of small companies and a desolate strip mall stood for many years. Titletown now contains eating places, workplace buildings, a sports activities medical clinic and a luxurious resort, plus a sledding hill and skating rink.
Murphy additionally upgraded Lambeau Discipline, persevering with the renovation and growth initiatives that his predecessor, Bob Harlan, started with a serious reconstruction in 2002. And he held two inventory gross sales, which boosted whole possession to 538,967 stockholders who’ve a mixed 5,204,625 shares of the group.
And his tenure was capped by this 12 months’s NFL draft, which was hosted within the Lambeau Discipline car parking zone and drew an estimated crowd of greater than 600,000 over three days.
All from somebody who got here to Inexperienced Bay from the world of faculty sports activities. He had beforehand served as athletic director at Northwestern College (2003-07) in Evanston, Illinois, and at his alma mater Colgate College (1992-2003) in Hamilton, New York. His post-playing journey additionally included a regulation diploma from Georgetown College in 1988 and a stint as a trial legal professional within the U.S. Division of Justice (1989-92).
His solely important earlier connection to the Packers got here when he performed towards them as an All-Professional security for Washington within the well-known “Monday Night time Soccer” recreation on Oct. 17, 1983 — a 48-47 Packers win which stays the highest-scoring recreation in group historical past.
“Mark has executed lots, particularly as somebody coming in from the skin,” San Francisco 49ers proprietor Jed York stated. “Going again earlier than Mark, there have been nice folks that had been part of that group for an extended, very long time. To carry somebody in from the skin, who was in a position to slot in and made the Packers much more profitable, and navigated some fairly difficult waters, there aren’t many individuals who may’ve executed it higher than Mark.”
NOTHING WAS MORE difficult than what Murphy confronted just some months into his tenure when Brett Favre retired in early 2008 solely to alter his thoughts that summer time. By that point, then-Packers normal supervisor Ted Thompson had determined to maneuver on to Aaron Rodgers, who had sat for 3 seasons behind Favre.
It was largely unpopular with the fan base and led to a public standoff that wasn’t settled till Favre was traded to the New York Jets that August. It received so ugly that Murphy and the group’s govt committee employed the companies of former White Home press secretary Ari Fleischer to assist with public relations.
Followers protested outdoors the stadium and the apply discipline, imploring Murphy, Thompson and then-coach Mike McCarthy to take Favre again.
Murphy stated he by no means requested himself, “What did I get myself into?”
However …
“It was undoubtedly like, ‘We ain’t in Hamilton, New York, anymore,'” Murphy recalled, pondering of his days because the Colgate AD. “Simply the media consideration [was intense], however fortunately we had Aaron to step in for him. After which historical past repeats itself.”
Present Packers normal supervisor Brian Gutekunst, who was promoted to the place by Murphy in 2018, raved in regards to the regular hand Murphy led with, particularly throughout instances just like the Rodgers-to-Jordan Love transition in 2023.
“He is mentally robust,” Gutekunst stated. “He was actually robust as a participant, as effectively, however I believe he is exceptionally mentally robust, loyal. And I simply suppose he is — like all of us attempt to — [following] the guideline: What’s finest for the Packers?
“It is by no means about one particular person. It is by no means a few participant or an worker or anyone. It is in regards to the Inexperienced Bay Packers and what’s finest for the Inexperienced Bay Packers. I do not suppose he is ever overlooked that and has needed to make some actually robust calls alongside the best way, and really appreciative for his assist by way of all that stuff.”
The one teaching change the Packers made throughout Murphy’s tenure took place due to the shift Murphy made within the management construction. When he employed Gutekunst in 2018 after eradicating Thompson, Murphy determined that to enhance communication within the group, the group president would oversee each the GM and the coach. Beforehand, the GM oversaw hiring and firing the coach.
The firing of McCarthy with 4 video games left within the 2018 season marked the one time within the 100-plus 12 months historical past of the Packers {that a} coach was eliminated in-season.
Shortly afterward, McCarthy stated: “It could not have been dealt with any worse.”
IN EARLY JUNE, Murphy wrote in his month-to-month column on Packers.com that he regrets that the Packers made just one Tremendous Bowl look throughout his tenure, profitable Tremendous Bowl XLV with Rodgers at quarterback throughout the 2010 season.
“I might have beloved to win a Tremendous Bowl with Brian Gutekunst and Matt LaFleur,” Murphy wrote. “We have been shut many instances, and I’m assured that they may break by way of and win a Tremendous Bowl within the not-too-distant future.”
When requested if he had every other regrets, Murphy thought for a second.
“Not that we did all the things proper,” Murphy stated. “However general, not quite a lot of regrets.”
The present group gave Murphy a sendoff on the shut of the June minicamp. LaFleur requested Murphy to interrupt down the huddle after the ultimate apply.
Because the group gathered round Murphy, he counted off, “One, two, three.”
The whole group responded: “Tremendous Bowl!”
A second for Mark at his final minicamp pic.twitter.com/4RJPCfVIew
— Inexperienced Bay Packers (@packers) June 12, 2025
