Like the annual will he play or won’t he play drama of Brett Favre, the annual Ted Thompson bashing has begun in earnest on the first day of the NFL’s free agency period. It seems that most fans don’t really care who the Packers spend money on as long as they spend it. Kind of like the way I spend my money, which is pretty much why I’m always broke. Thompson, however, has more than one life to worry about when it comes to spending the Packers’ money and he is not going to break the bank and cripple the team’s future.
All Thompson has done in his five years is take the horrible mess Mike Sherman left him and after suffering through a 4-12 season in his first year at the helm is turn the team into a playoff contender and now Super Bowl contender. Since Thompson hired Mike McCarthy the Packers are 38-26 in the regular season and have reached the playoffs two of the last three years including one appearance in the NFC Championship game.
Thompson was bold enough to make the right move at the right time regarding Favre and the because of it the Packers once again have one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and are set for years at the premier position in the NFL. It is better to get rid of a player one year to soon than one year too late. With few exceptions Thompson has made all the right moves for the Packers the last five years.
With that in mind this all-day whining today because the Packers didn’t break the bank and buy Julius Peppers or pay an outrageous amount to a 33-year old broken down left tackle is ridiculous. The Green Bay Packers don’t act that way, which is why they have one of the best records in the NFL since free agency started, and Washington has one of the worst.
***NOTE: Chad Clifton did indeed just resign with the Packers. Three year deal with seven million guaranteed. Averages seven mil a year but he won’t play three years, don’t know what the salary is the last year but is probably a big one that he won’t see.***
With that news update I guess all the whining done by fans and especially Chris Havel on The Fan today was worth it. I hate to bite the hand the feeds me but am I alone in thinking The Fan is getting almost un-listenable? I mean between the Bear fan and the Bronco fan in the morning and the Thompson hater/Favre butt-kisser in the afternoon, it’s getting sick. Two straight hours this afternoon of making fun of Thompson and praising the injury prone Clifton. And low and behold five minutes after they are off the air Clifton signs. Maybe Havel is calling the shots now.
But this is not Dallas, the Packers won’t hosting 100,000 people to a basketball game in Lambeau Field anytime soon, and in an NFL uncapped economy the Packers could be endanger of becoming extinct if they fail to be competitive long term. They simply can’t afford to pay big money for a one-year fix then settle for five years of losing like other teams can. The best way to build a team to last is through the draft but you have to be damn good to do it. Thompson must be just that because has built a winner in Green Bay knowing the restrictions on the only publicly owned franchise in professional sports.
Thankfully Thompson, like his mentor – Ron Wolf – doesn’t give a crap about what people say about him and is confident in his ability to get the job done. The guy is almost anti-social and having to meet the press as much as he does doesn’t help his image any. But I love the way he destroyed Greg A. Bedard last January in their one-on-one interview. Bedard was clearly trying to goat him into getting mad and all he got was a chuckle. Of course, anybody you uses their middle initial in there name thinks they are hot-shit from the get-go, so Thompson knew what was coming. It was funny stuff. Go to JSOnline to check it out.
I call all-you-all Favre ball-washers so go ahead and call me a Thompson ball-washer if you want. Like with Favre, results speak for themselves. Thompson needs to take this team to the Super Bowl to justify it all, no doubt about that, but he has all the pieces are in place as far as head coach and starting quarterback. The defense is on the rise and the team has a ton of young talent. I just can’t see how adding an overpaid prima donna like Peppers is going to help the chemistry of this team. Peppers is no Reggie White.The best thing about today is all the pressure is on Chicago now. With the Jay Cutler trade last year, and the signing of Peppers and Chester Taylor today, it’s the NFC North or bust for the Bears. With Cutler at QB? Good luck with that.
All I ask is that we let it play out before rushing to judgment. If indeed Thompson was asleep at 11:00 PM last night when free agency started, I bet it was a sound sleep.