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Murphy Appreciates Green Bay's Culture
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| Mark H. Murphy and Bob Harlan |
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by Mike Spofford, Packers.com
posted 12/03/2007
To understand the challenges small-town Green Bay faces in the big-business world of the NFL takes a certain sensibility.
Mark H. Murphy has understood and appreciated those types of challenges at several junctures throughout his career. Moreover, he has welcomed them.
Murphy, named the new Packers President and CEO on Monday, has spent the past 16 years as athletic director at two Division I universities, Colgate and Northwestern. Raised in a small town in upstate New York and having made it to the NFL as a non-drafted free agent out of Colgate, Murphy felt at home taking on the administrative challenges at his alma mater and the Big Ten's smallest institution.
"As people get to know me, they'll see that I love being the underdog," Murphy said. "At Colgate, we were one of the smallest Division I schools in the country, without scholarships, and having success there was really rewarding. Really even at Northwestern, it's by far the smallest school in the Big Ten, it has very high academic standards and doesn't have a lot of the advantages other schools in the Big Ten have.
"I love being in that situation and I really see a lot of similarities here. You have Green Bay, a small-market team, yet overcoming all the odds and succeeding."
Murphy's small-town sensibilities extend to his family life as well. In the midst of his first post-NFL career as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Murphy said he and his wife made the conscious decision to leave the Washington, D.C., area to raise his four children in a more rural setting.
Hamilton, N.Y., with a population of roughly 3,500 and home to his beloved Colgate, was the right place for Murphy, whose own playing career laid the groundwork to thrive in leading a small but proud athletic department. He not only became a Pro Bowl player for the Washington Redskins despite little hype and fanfare upon entering the NFL, he also helped lead a team that had its share of players with similar backgrounds.
"When I was with the Redskins, on the two Super Bowl teams (1982 and 1983), seven of our 22 starters were undrafted free agents," Murphy said. "Our mindset was we really overcame great odds. I think success in those circumstances is especially meaningful and rewarding."
Murphy's successful playing career took him through Wisconsin twice. The first was a preseason game against the Packers at Milwaukee's County Stadium in his rookie season of 1977. The second was far more memorable.
Murphy was the starting free safety for the defending Super Bowl champions when they came to Lambeau Field for a Monday night game on Oct. 17, 1983. One of the wildest games in Lambeau's 50-year history, the contest still ranks as the highest-scoring Monday Night Football game of all-time, a 48-47 Packers victory.
"I think it was Don Meredith who said, 'First one to 50 wins,' which was pretty close," Murphy recalled. "It wasn't a good game to be a defensive back.
"The game was kind of a blur. But I do remember what a tremendous atmosphere it was, almost a college-like atmosphere. It was really exciting."
Murphy couldn't be more excited to now call the storied stadium his home.
"The big advantage here is you really are focused on football -- what things you have to do to get better, improve the team and win, and sometimes in other organizations that's not quite as clear," he said.
"There's always a challenge and as you look to the future, ensuring the Packers' interests are protected, particularly at league level, is crucial. But we can't lose sight of the fact that what we have here is something special."
That knowledge and understanding, as well as Murphy's experience as a player representative and eventually vice president of the NFL Players Association, made Murphy the most attractive candidate among the three finalists from an initial pool of roughly 60 individuals. Current vice president of administration Jason Wied also was a finalist, along with an unidentified third candidate.
Retiring CEO and soon-to-be chairman emeritus Bob Harlan said during Monday's press conference that there were several candidates from the NFL as well as other professional sports leagues, but Murphy stood out because he answered questions about collective bargaining, revenue sharing and the salary cap, among other topics, clearly with Green Bay's perspective in mind.
"His priority right from the start was very obvious to me, and it was football," said Harlan, who said he will serve as a consultant to Murphy through his first year on the job. "From the moment I took over in '89, I thought football has got to be No. 1. We've got to get better on Sundays, and Mark took that same approach.
"He has a great understanding of the culture of the Green Bay Packers, the city, the fans, the corporate structure, the ownership, everything about it. He knew it, and he got it."
For his part, Murphy said he plans to spend time talking with the fans and learning what they're thinking. He recalled upon returning to upstate New York after 15 years in the Washington, D.C., area how his passion for his boyhood favorite Buffalo Bills quickly returned when he started attending games again, so he's in tune with the emotions fans invest.
"I think I can relate to the fans," Murphy said. "I have a sense of how important the Packers are to the fans here in the community, and I really want to be able to spend a lot of time with people in the community to get a sense of how they feel about the Packers and what changes they think might help. But as Bob said, we want to have a winner and want to have a team that performs well."
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That in itself is something Murphy has been impressed with, having watched the Packers the past couple of seasons from the Chicago area while working at Northwestern. Murphy said he sees a lot of similarities between Head Coach Mike McCarthy and Joe Gibbs, the Hall of Fame coach who took over the Redskins in 1981 and for whom Murphy served as a team captain.
McCarthy and Gibbs both rose to head coaching jobs from positions as offensive coordinators, and did so in their early 40s. Washington won its final three games that season to finish 8-8, much like the Packers won four straight to close 2006 at 8-8 in McCarthy's first season. Then, over the next two seasons, the Redskins went 8-1 (in strike-shortened 1982) and 14-2 and reached two Super Bowls, winning one.
"I told Mike, 'Don't feel any pressure,'" joked Murphy, who met McCarthy on Monday. "But I really meant that as a compliment to Mike, because I have tremendous respect for Joe."
Murphy also looks forward to working with General Manager Ted Thompson, with whom he sees similarities to himself. Both Murphy and Thompson were non-drafted free agents who lasted far longer than the average player's career (eight and 10 years, respectively), and while Murphy said he'd certainly be available for any advice or guidance Thompson would want, he will give Thompson full authority over football decisions moving forward.
"I have great respect for Ted," Murphy said. "You look at the situation he stepped into, he had to make some tough decisions in a short period of time and really has the roster in tremendous shape."
As for the business side, Murphy said he sees an organization in solid financial shape, and he doesn't see himself as a leader who will come in and change things simple for change's sake.
But he cautioned against any feelings of complacency business-wise, because the stakes continue to be raised with new stadiums opening in Indianapolis, New York and Dallas over the next couple of years. He believes the franchise's biggest challenge over the next three to five years will be identifying additional revenue streams, whether that be through new media such as the internet or exploring international markets.
"I think I'm really fortunate to be in this situation," Murphy said. "Obviously this is an organization that's not broken, it's operating at a high level on the field, it's performing well financially, and that gives me the opportunity to take a little more time to study and understand the culture."
Which, truth be told, he already has a solid grasp of.
"To me, Mark was the perfect fit," Harlan said. "He's down-to-earth, he'll fit with the fans. He doesn't bring an attitude with him. He's a calming influence." |
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