The Green Bay Packers, as they have the last few seasons,
began the 2012 season with high expectations, ran into some injury issues, and
like they did in 2011, finished with a dud, getting embarrassed defensively by
the 49ers in the divisional playoff game.
The collective reaction from everybody, Ted Thompson, his
scouts, Mike McCarthy, the coaches, and the fans, are what makes the Green Bay Packers the best organization in American professional sports.
If what happened to the Packers would have, say, happened to
the Minnesota Vikings. Oh my goodness. Talk about anger. Heads would have
rolled, fans and the owner would have demanded that people be fired, big
changes be made, and oh yeah, it’s all the GM’s fault.
Instead, Packers fans just calmly sat back and watched as
their team lost several of its key players during the free agency period in
March. The big one was Greg Jennings. Questions arose, but nobody got angry.
Instead, the sat back and continued to let Ted Thompson work. The NFL draft in
April brought some serious help to this team. This draft appears to be another
one of Ted Thompson’s “smart, crafty, sneaky, under the table, and the longer
we get away from it the better it looks” drafts. J.C. Tretter could be the long
term center the Packers are looking for and Charles Johnson could be the next
Packers receiver to come in unnoticed and climb the depth chart to stardom.
Then the news broke that the Packers released Desmond Bishop. More questions arose. Thompson kept Finley the loudmouth, but let Jennings walk? Thompson
extended Brad Jones, kept A.J. Hawk, and cut Bishop? What? That doesn’t make
any sense right now. That’s the thing about Thompson, no moves he ever makes
make any sense at that exact time. But, as we have found out over and over
again, there is a method to his madness. I’m pretty sure we will see the method
to his madness down the road at some point. Regardless Packers fans have once
again sat back and said “okay, this makes no sense to us Ted. But, you’re the
boss, and we trust you”. The key word there is trust. That word right there is
what separates this organization and its fans from the rest. There is a deep amount of trust here. The fans
trust Thompson, Murphy trusts Thompson. McCarthy trusts Thompson. Thompson
trusts McCarthy. Thompson trusts his players. The players trust McCarthy. The
players trust Thompson. So while other teams overreact to everything that
happens, the Packers, and their fans, trust each other. That is what makes this
group so special.
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