This article, which is among the primary sources, very thoroughly lays out both potential narratives for the hiring process AND expresses clear uncertainty about which is true even among the insidery of insiders involved.Yoop wrote: ↑15 Jun 2021 09:40agree with the comment Lupe made, I had seen articles that claimed that McCarthy and Rodgers didn't think Russ Ball would be a good fit as a GM that they would have to deal with.
here is a googgle link to at least 2 or 3 articles that any 10 year old with a PC could have easily found, obviously that was either to difficult for the complainer to do , or he wasn't interested in proof anyway, but rather to just be argumentative
For us to act with more certainty about either narrative, then, should be reduced to the weight of opinion and not fact. Either is plenty possible, and even people inside the building are not sure which is more accurate.
https://www.packersnews.com/story/sport ... 030792001/
Over the last several days I’ve spoken with multiple sources closely connected to the Packers to find out what happened. I came away with nothing close to a definitive answer and have to admit I still harbor doubts about the prevailing narrative that McCarthy and Rodgers changed Murphy’s mind on Ball.
Not that the prevailing narrative isn’t compelling. It’s straight forward and plausible. It goes like this:
When Murphy at a news conference Jan. 2 said that Ted Thompson’s successor as GM would have full authority over the Packers’ football operations, including the ability to hire and fire the head coach, he thought Ball would be his choice.
Ball was the obvious guess to many who had observed or knew of the inner workings of the franchise. For starters, he spent far more time with Murphy than anyone else on the football side of the organization. That ranged from standing in for Thompson on many administrative matters to joining the GM and CEO in the small suite where the three of them watched games at Lambeau Field.
As Thompson farmed out more and more administrative duties to him the last few years, Ball basically was functioning as GM except for picking players, and in his role as salary-cap adviser he’d even become a voice there. Of course Ball was going to be the next GM. That’s what Murphy was thinking as far back as 2016 when he said he and Thompson had a succession plan.
But as the search began, McCarthy went on the offensive. In his own news conference he proclaimed that the fit with the new GM was a two-way street. He also met with Murphy and presumably expressed concerns that Ball would share Thompson’s disdain for free agency and not provide him with the roster he needed around Rodgers to win a Super Bowl. Two sources confirmed to me that McCarthy indeed had those concerns.
When Murphy heard that Rodgers harbored the same sentiment via an on-air comment by ESPN Milwaukee radio’s Jason Wilde, who used to host a radio show with Rodgers, the CEO realized that promoting Ball would alienate the two most important members of the organization.
So, the narrative goes, Murphy changed course and picked Gutekunst as a compromise. Murphy valued McCarthy and Ball and didn’t want to leapfrog them with a much younger subordinate to be their boss – Gutekekunst is 44, Ball 58 and McCarthy 54. So Murphy abandoned the franchise’s quarter century of GM-as-football-czar model and instead decided to have all three report to him.
But there’s another narrative that I also find plausible and compelling after talking with several sources over the last couple of days.
In that narrative, Murphy all along wanted a GM with a background in personnel (i.e., not Ball), and knew or suspected he would hire Gutekunst over 35-year-old Eliot Wolf, the other internal personnel candidate. The fact that Murphy didn’t even try to trade for John Schneider, a proven GM in Seattle, was evidence of his regard for Gutekunst, who also was in the running for the GM job in Houston.
During the interview process, however, Murphy learned of alarming dysfunction within the scouting staff, and between the scouting staff and head coach. Thompson always had kept his own counsel, but as his energy waned the last three years he was even less responsive to the wishes and suggestions of his scouts and coach. McCarthy was extremely unhappy that Thompson and Ball rarely looked outside the draft for players.
In this narrative, Murphy didn’t want his young new GM to have to clean up all the relationships, rebuild the roster and possibly make a big decision on the head coach all within his first year on the job. Murphy also wanted to keep happy two other employees he highly values, McCarthy and Ball.
So Murphy tried to solve the communication problems by having Gutekunst, McCarthy and Ball all report to him. None would be the other’s boss, and Gutekunst could grow into his new role.
One source who closely observes the franchise and knows many of the principals involved lent particular credence to this take. The source expressed surprise that Ball had been reported so prominently as the front runner and considered it less radical for Murphy to restructure the front office than to hire a GM whose background is primarily in administration (i.e., Ball).
I’m still unsure which narrative is true. The sources I spoke with were well informed and had their opinions, and the majority thought McCarthy (and Rodgers) changed Murphy’s mind. But none could say for sure. There’s probably only a small circle of people who know how it actually went down.
Unfortunately you are completely missing the 2nd half that Acrobat was actually asking for proof of:
