We wondered aloud where Green Bay Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy was hiding after his team’s asinine loss to the Seattle Seahawks Monday night.
While his team’s owners were irate and audibly voicing their opinions about the debacle that was the NFL’s replacement referees, Murphy was hiding out… somewhere.
Had, say, the Dallas Cowboys been in the Packers’ position Monday night, we would have bet our house Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones would have offered a sound bite or two. Although Murphy isn’t the Packers owner, he is the organization’s figurehead.
Well, the organization’s figurehead, minus the passion.
Whereas the Jerry Joneses and Bob Krafts of the world are known as owners of NFL teams, they’re also known as guys who are fully invested in those teams.
Murphy, on the other hand, isn’t.
So on Thursday he showed up and made a brief statement and then refused to take any questions.
“I wanted to just say, I decided not until this point to speak publicly really out of respect for and concern for the sensitivity of the bargaining process,” Murphy said. “I didn’t want to influence that in any way. I have over the last couple of days talked to several people in the league office, including Roger (Goodell).
“I expressed our views. But first and foremost for the long-term good of the game we wanted to make sure we got a deal done.”
Murphy went on to praise coach Mike McCarthy for the way he’s handled himself and then he bolted.
What do you think about Murphy’s response? You can probably guess what we think.