As many of us sit here and wonder what the heck is going on with our beloved a Packers I have one question. Why does Bob Harlan always seem to get a free pass by many Packer fans. He still gets way too much fame for bringing Wolf in.
I like Harlan but he needs to also be held accountable.

First he does the unthinkable by hiring Mike Sherman a coach with no experience as a head coach at any level. OK I can live with that but to give him GM duties. What the hell was that all about. That should have never been allowed. For the record I like Mike Sherman and thought he did ok. I still believe this team should have one 2 more superbowls after Holmgren and to never even get to the NFC Championship game in his tenure is not OK with me.

Second, he hired Ted Thompson the verdict is still out on him however it is looking more and more that he is a GM wanna be. I think TT has done some nice things but overall it comes down to wins and losses and he is not a winner after 4 years 35-37 to be exact..

So I ask this question why do some of you continue to give Harlan a free pass. IMO he is the crust of many issues that are going on today. Thoughts….

Better bring Ron Wolf into this since he recommended TT to Harlan.

That has always been my opinion that Harlan really screwed up when he gave Sherman both jobs. First he put Sherman in over his head and second he eliminated the checks and balances that comes with the GM and HC being to separate people.

I was just about to mention that. Wolf also recommended Sherman for the GM/Coach role.

I don't think anyone has given Harlan a "free pass" but I think when you look at what he took over and what he left behind, it's a pretty impressive body of work. Not only a Super Bowl win and another appearance but the Stadium renovation, the improved brand and the successful removal of games from Milwaukee. Did he make mistakes - yes - but when you take everything into account, he did an incredible job. I think his accomplishments far out weigh the mistakes.

Harlan insured that the Packers exist today and are positioned to be a viable franchise for years to come. That's why he gets a pass.

That is one reason VoR.

Wolf hired Rhodes... and then fired him after 8-8 because the team showed no progress during the season.

Harlan made all of his decisions with the help of many - Wolf did recommend Sherman.

And yes - Harlan went door to door and gave probably 10 years off of his life so we could have a renovated Lambeau - there is nothing about him or what he did or how he did it that wasnt top notch and full of class. It may be stretching a bit but you could argue he saved this franchise

IMO Sherman wasn't that bad of a coach, I thought he was a bad GM though.

Didn't Harlan help get that new stadium built? If so he deserves a freepass, it brings in money year round.

Plus did get the Packers to the Super Bowl twice and a win.

I agree with you. I think asking anyone, or allowing anyone to assume both roles is not a good move. Even Holmgren had a lot of problems trying to do double duty.

I've been saying for years that Harlan was the catalyst for the downward trend. I've never given him a free pass. Back in the day, (near the end of Gregg's tenure I believe) he was told by consultants that the model for success was the separate GM/HC model. He listened and got it right eventually by hiring Wolf and giving him total control. (Prior to that, I beleive he allowed powersharing among Infante and Braatz.) The HC was then chosen and handled "coaching" while the GM managed the rest of the operation.

Unfortunately, he revered Wolf to the point where he couldn't say "no" to him when Wolf decided to retire and recommended Sherman for the job. This was Harlan's greatest moment of weakness. I think I screamed out loud the day they announced that Sherman was taking on the GM role as well. Aaaaaaargh. . . . . Bob . . . . . what are you thinking!!!! Sherman barely had the credentials to be HC, he had no credentials that would suggest he could be a decent GM - none. (OK, he was a hard-working, decent man which I will always give him credit for.)

You are a guy in charge of a multibillion dollar organization, how do you choose a guy with no front office experiance and no real HC experience even, to be the primary face of the franchise and it's biggest decision maker. It would be like IBM hiring a guy who was a sales supervisor for a couple of years who has just been promoted to VP of sales in the last 6 months to take over as COO of the company. Who does something like that? I believe it was Harlan's loyalty and admiration of Wolf that led him to make both the Sherman and TT decisions. Harlan was simply not cut-throat enough to tell his GM to forget about it.

I'm not ripping on Harlan in general. He did wonderful things for the organization. He was a great ambassador for the team both within league circles and within the community. He was probably the biggest reason the stadium deal got done. In general I hold him in high regard. However, it's fair to point out this particular set of "related" mistakes as perhaps not being among his finer moments.

That's the bottom line for me too, Harlan keept the Packers viable with the Lambeau remodeling and the practice fields

Well there was the fans who also were apart of that. The Brown County residents stepped up for the renovation. There were many behind the scenes personell working hard to keep the Packers viable. That I can assure still goes on today. I dont think that gives Harlan a free pass on some very suspect decisions over the past decade. I love Harlan however I can not give him a free pass. JMHO.

You have got to be kidding me. Bob Harlan had the vision to turn Green Bay from a NFL ghost town to a Super Bowl Champion. Look at all the economic growth around Lambeau Field , the sports bars, the restaurants, the Lambeau Field renovation that he went door to door on, the practice facility upgrades, Family Nights, Hall of Fame renovation, the top profiting Pro shop in the NFL. To appreciate Bob Harlan you have to know what he inherited and the culture of Green Bay when he took over. He turned a bleak midwestern city football organization into a huge cashcow. The Packers will never have another CEO that will make the kind of organizational strides that Bob Harlan did. IMO, there should be a statue of Bob Harlan out there with Lombardi and Lambeau. He had that kind of impact on bringing this organization back from the dead, and I mean dead.

Some fans have a different opinion of who was responsible 4 saving the franchise.

Well I guess that means you give him a free pass
Also GM I do appreciate Harlan but to exhonerate him from any mistakes over the past decade is dellusional.

You want perfection? Lombardi and Lambeau weren't perfect either. We can all hem and haw on the language, but no matter how you sliced it Harlan saved the franchise (as he descrivbed above.) It just seems really small and petty to bring up a bad GM hire as some how minimizing his lieftime achievements. Sort of like Niners fans piling on Bill Walssh because he didn't win a Super Bowl every year.

WHEN did anyone say that in any of the post above?. The question was does he deserve a free pass on his hires of both TT and Sherman. We all agree he was a great ambassador for the Packers .

Harlan made a few mistakes. So did Wolf. And Holmgren? They all made some.

I'm pretty confident if Harlan was still in charge, he would own up to things and try to correct them(which is the important thing IMO). No one is perfect.

I have no idea what Murphy and the current BOD will do. Right now we wait and see how the rest of the season plays out, I guess.

Free Pass, not so, Harlan earned his strips-period. The current AD GROUP ARE THE RESPONSIBLE ONES, looking at a history of no lossing season provided under Harlan, compared too what's up now (Apple and Oranges). Look no firther than TT and MM....PS this TT's firth season and only one winning season . Sherman/Harlan too blame, yea right ?

History will show that Bob Harlan's worst decision was hiring Ted Thompson.

JMO

Great post!

I'll chime in- As a kid in the 60's watched this team go from greatness to the the threat from other teams that if the player didn't shape up; they would send them to GB. 20 plus years of sucking!! Had to adopt an AFC team to fight utter depression over our Pack. j/k But the best day was when Judge what's his name stepped down and Harland was in charge and that was when Infante was HC; not Gregg. The rest from there is history.

Now everyone makes mistakes and no one is perfect. Harland wasn't perfect either. He said he regretted making MS the HC/GM; but RW did advise it and they thought with who MS had for scouting, personnel, and as vice president to handle most of the GM duties; it would work out. They knew Favre was getting up there and time was runing out; so continuity was what they were trying for.

As for TT; RW and MH advised Harland for that hire; as Harland scouted for a new GM.

Oh back to MS; remember that RW was trying to get Mooch as HC and the 9ers wouldn't part with him. So MS wasn't Harland's. Ried, Gruden, MH; Parcells were all locked up under contract at the time. They wanted to keep the WCO for Favre.

As long as on Harland; if he was still in charge; Favre-Gate would have never happened...guaranteed! Harland is single-handedly responsible for turning us from the laughing stock team to a prominent one players want to play for and he insured the future of the Packers as an organization. Hopefully his pick of Murphy will work out.....

FYI...no 'd' in Harlan.

The one thing I wonder is why people are so quick to fire Murphy after less than one year on the job, yet Harlan kept Braatz and Infante around for 2 years before changing to Ron Wolf.

Why wouldn't Murphy get a few years before he pulls the trigger to fire Thompson?

The similarities of Murphy and Harlan are actually very similar.

Harlan was hired in June of 89. That year the Packers had their first good season in a few decades and he extended Infante's contract by 2 years.

In 91, Braatz was fired and Wolf was hired.

Murphy was hired in the summer of 08, the year after the Packers had their first NFC Championship game in about a decade. He then extended the GM and Coach as would seem natural to do.

If he fires Thompson next year (and if the team continues to fail) , it would be about the same as what Harlan did when he started.

I'm not sure to many are asking for Murphy's firing but as I said before, neither of these guy's were hired on his watch so he has some leeway. I think you make a great comparison and it wouldn't suprise me to see Murphy ride out both of these contracts. If they succeed, he's a genius and if they don't, he can fire them and point to the fact that they weren't his hires. From that point on, his stamp will be put on the team. I think he's in a win-win situation.

I guess I haven't seen anyone suggest Murphy get fired already. I agree that would be very premature at this point.

Wolf admitted his mistake after a year and cut ties even though the team was technically in playoff contention throughout the entire regular season. IMO that shows good management skills to admit you were wrong before things get out of hand and move on before they snowball.

Me too. although I admit, I'm not to sure I understand Murphy's status in the decision making process. The Pack is an unusual business in that they have no owner that tells the president to reprimand the GM. Most subjective or objective observers for that matter, must agree that Thompson needs to be given his release, but it is it Murphy's call? I'm not sure of what authority he has

As far as I know, and as far as Murphy has said in his recent presser, he has the final say in any decision making but takes the BOD opinions into consideration. Anyone with more insight please correct me if I'm wrong.

Opps......thanks for the correction there Buddy!

No one does everything perfect. Sure Harlan made a couple mistakes here and there, including maybe our current GM, but that will never take away from what he did to improve and preserve the franchise. I mean, the guy physically went door to door asking for support to renovate Lambeau. The measure passed by a small margin; he had a pivotal role in getting that measure to pass and without his efforts - let alone his vision of the new place - the new Lambeau wouldn't exist and the Packers would have a much different place in the league. There is no statue of Harlan but there is a plaque dedicated to him in-between the statues of Lombardi and Lambeau. If you take a tour of the stadium they point out loud and clear that Harlan sits right up there with those two in importance.

Harlan couldn't stay forever and he left at the right time. Someone eventually had to take over and I support the Murphy pick. People complaining about Murphy, how he's no Harlan etc. need to get their heads examined. Of course he isn't and there never will be another Harlan. He set the standard for presiding over the Green Bay Packers, for the right combination of decision making and putting his own fingerprints on the franchise, and knowing when to back off, keep the EC at bay and let the football people run football operations. As long as Murphy and future Packer presidents follow that blueprint, the team will have success for years to come.

Well said....Murphy is still assessing the issue at hand. I doubt he'll do anything before the season ends. That said, Murphy needs to take decisive action, when that time comes! Packers are 4-4, sorry just not the end of the world, I believe and hope that there still time too salvage the season! Go Packers

Back to Bob Harlan;

Bob Harlan inducted into Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame

(PackerChatters Newswire) – Bob Harlan, former president and CEO of the Green Bay Packers will be inducted into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame Friday, November 20.

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No, that's accurate. But just remember this. Who hired (and has the power to fire) Murphy? That's right, that same BOD.

In a way, it's very similar to big time college sports. You have an Athletic Director and Head Coach. But who ultimately makes decsions behind the scenes? The boosters.

As with any group, it's hard to have a firm consensus. So when you have varying opinions (or full support of course), Murphy doesn't have to worry too much about them, and just go about his job. It's when a consensus starts to build that TT needs to go (as an example) that Murphy has to take seriously. Otherwise it could potentially be HIS job on the line.

Lots of politics, but still better than a know-it-all owner who obviosuly DOESN'T know it all. Like a Snyder, Al Davis, etc.