Green Bay Packers: Top 30 moments in franchise history

Ted Thompson

Raymond T. Rivard photograph

20. Hiring of Ted Thompson

The Packers signed one of the greatest evaluators of talent in 2005, but it came with drama. Our story starts in 1999 when Mike Holmgren left for the Seattle Seahawks after enjoying success in Green Bay.

The Packers hired in 1999, who was eventually replaced in 2000 by Mike Sherman who served as the both the general manager and head coach of the Packers.

Eventually Packers’ team president Bob Harlan made the decision that Sherman couldn’t handle both tasks and set out to look for a general manager.

Ted Thompson.

Raymond T. Rivard photograph

Seattle was experiencing a feud between Holmgren and president Bob Whitsitt, who knew his days were numbered. Harlan reached out to Seattle to get permission to speak to Thompson, who served as the vice president of football operations at the time. Holmgren was on vacation, and it was said that this was the last chance for Whitsitt to get back at him. Whitsitt gave the Packers permission to talk to Thompson, who was hired almost immediately, not requiring an interview.

Thompson had been a part of the Packers organization in the 1990s and Harlan knew his capabilities. Harlan said in an interview later,

"“The reason I didn’t need a face-to-face meeting with him was because I watched him here for eight years,” Harlan said, referring to Thompson’s personnel job in Green Bay from 1992 to 1999 under Wolf. “I’d been around and I worked with him and I knew what I was getting when I went after him. And then I watched what he did when he went out to Seattle.”"

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