Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy is a tiring guy. Tiring to look at, tiring to listen to and tiring in his status quo philosophies when it comes to the product on the field.
Here is the guy, who every time anyone points out that the measuring stick in Green Bay is Super Bowl championships, tells us about how the Packers have made the playoffs for X consecutive seasons. In essence, the measuring stick is different for the guy running the team than it is for everyone else.
The president has lowered the bar.
That’s simply maddening.
Murphy more or less confirmed this week that not only will the playoffs again be good enough (one and done, wooooooo!!!), but that regardless of the outcome of the season, Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson won’t be going anywhere unless they retire.
“I have heard from fans that they don’t like that [statistic]. That we’ve ‘accepted mediocrity,’ that ‘just getting into the playoffs is good enough,’” Murphy said. “You know, first of all, you’re not going to win a Super Bowl if you don’t get into the playoffs, so that’s where you have to start.
“[Thompson and McCarthy] have done a great job. It’s almost unparalleled in the league. The NFL record for consistent success is nine in a row in the playoffs. We’re on the doorstep. We still have a lot of work to do, but hopefully we can achieve that.”
What I take from that is that Murphy is more concerned about getting to nine consecutive years in the playoffs than he actually is about winning another Super Bowl. Because getting into the playoffs — that’s where you have to start.
Personally, I don’t see much of a difference between losing your first playoff game and not making the playoffs at all. The Packers have done that three times in those seven years. In fact, the Packers are 7-6 in the playoffs over the seven-year run. Other than the Super Bowl season, they only made one other NFC Championship game and you know how that turned out.
That’s not what I would call playoff success. If that Super Bowl run never happened or fell short, we’d be saying the Packers are awful in the postseason.
The New England Patriots share that active seven-year playoff streak with the Packers. They’ve made two Super Bowls (1-1) and have played in their last five conference championship games. Their overall playoff record during the span (8-6) isn’t much better than the Packers’, but the Patriots are consistently playing in bigger games.
So, you say you have a shot at the Super Bowl if you make the playoffs? I say you don’t have a shot at a Super Bowl unless you reach your conference championship game!
I’m not necessarily out there looking for Mike McCarthy’s or Ted Thompson’s head, but it wouldn’t matter if I were. I know Murphy won’t do anything. Mike and Ted know Murphy won’t do anything. Because just making the playoffs is good enough.
If you want change, you’re thinking about it wrong. The guy who needs to go is Mark Murphy.
Perhaps someone with a different mentality, who will actually hold people accountable for repeatedly falling short of the real goal will raise the bar back to where it should be in Green Bay.