Packers: Mark Murphy’s comments not helping Aaron Rodgers situation

The Green Bay Packers‘ president and CEO has proven to be an incompetent leader of the winningest franchise in the NFL, and it’s time for him to be shown the door.

If there was any remaining doubt this coming season for the Packers would be a difficult one, Mark Murphy just managed to erase it. What has easily been the most turbulent offseason in years in Green Bay is getting worse and worse by the day, and the Packers have no one to blame but themselves.

Perhaps the most time-honored tradition surrounding Green Bay Packers football is not the ceremonial bike ride to training camp, or the leap into either end zone after a touchdown, or even the thunderous “Go Pack Go!” chants heard throughout the noisy cauldron at Lambeau Field. Rather, it is the franchise raising ticket prices on a fan base with season ticket waiting lists Methuselah couldn’t get his name on.

This is part of how Mark Murphy and the entire brass are taking advantage of Packer fans and their “shareholders”. Murphy has overseen arguably the single most embarrassing debacle in team history, and easily the period in which the franchise underachieved the most. But the more time goes on, the more it becomes clear Murphy is entirely consumed with his own grievances, and his own petty needs.

After writing that the Rodgers situation has “divided the fanbase”, Murphy actually said into a microphone at Lambeau Field, “I’m often reminded though of Ted Thompson, as most of you know, just a great general manager, passed away this past year, or excuse me earlier this year. [He] often talked about Aaron, that he’s a… and it wasn’t just Aaron, a lot of different players. He would say, ‘He’s a complicated fella.’ So, I’ll just say that.”

If you could keep down your most recent meal after reading that, you certainly aren’t a Packer fan. Anyone who has watched Aaron Rodgers during his time in Green Bay knows he has a reputation of personalizing every sleight and engaging in passive-aggressive drama. Now if that kind of behavior sounds familiar, it’s because that is the exact pattern followed by nearly every superstar quarterback who’s ever played the game.

The Packers could not have tried harder to put themselves in this situation by hysterically disposing of two draft choices for Jordan Love in between NFC championship berths. The Packers are seemingly the only team in the NFL that has no idea how to approach a situation like that. Alex Smith said the Chiefs made him aware of their pursuit of Patrick Mahomes long before the draft, during the draft, and kept him abreast of all their long-term plans through the ensuing season.

Now, Murphy has resorted to bizarre and unnecessary Q&A sessions on the internet, and reached a new low with his god-awful “complicated fella” routine. Setting aside how pointless and unhelpful it was, he literally invoked the words of a deceased man, who is no longer here to confirm or deny whether or not he actually said that. Regardless of if he did or not, there’s absolutely no reason to bring such a thing up.

Murphy might be the only team president in professional sports that somehow didn’t learn from the Favre-Rodgers debacle of 2005, when the prima donna quarterback sweatily waffled about retirement in media appearance after media appearance. If the circus that surrounded that whole situation didn’t teach the Packers anything, it’s no wonder things have gotten so dysfunctional in what used to be one of the best organizations in sports.

Murphy has proven to be an incapable steward of a deteriorating situation. The team’s fear of playing Jordan Love and the embarrassment that will cause will only be the latest example of their inability to put the right people in place, and set their fragile egos aside. Murphy needs to be replaced as team president.