November 28th, 2007 
Stephen Rhodes 
Posted in 
It appears that the search for a president is over up in Green Bay. According to PackersNews.com and confirmed by three NFL sources, the Green Bay Packers have chosen Mark Murphy, current athletic director at Northwestern University, as their next president and chief executive officer. He would replace Chairman Bob Harlan as the 10th head of the organization.
One of the above sources said that Murphy was among 3 finalists for the job, along with Jason Wied, the team’s vice president of administration and corporate counsel, and a third unidentified candidate. While Murphy has no NFL administrative experience, he played 8 years in the NFL, from 1977-1984. As a union representative, he was a member of the bargaining team for the NFL Players Association during the 1982 strike; after his playing career ended, he was an assistant executive director of the NFLPA.
The Packers’ search for Harlan’s replacement has usually been a secretive process conducted by a search committee, consisting of 6 members of the team’s executive committee and 4 members of its board of directors. While Murphy waits, the search committee now will have to politic to get a possibly divided board of directors to approve the hire. There was some strong sentiment to hire Wied – who has local ties and has experience running its business side under former team executive John Jones. There’s also a small but vocal faction that would like to see Tom Olejniczak, a local attorney and son of former team president Dominic Olejniczak.
Indications at the moment point towards the search committee placing a premium on experience in NFL administration – something that Murphy does not have; however, Murphy has some knowledge of the collective-bargaining process after helping negotiate the CBA in 1982 and his subsequent work through the NFLPA. He also has maintained some strong connections with the league, specifically former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue (how Tagliabue’s influence helps here, I have no idea).
Incidentally, the Packers have begun contract negotiations with Murphy, although the 45-person board of directors ultimately will have to confirm him for the position with a majority vote before the hiring is official. The board is expected to meet next week sometime.
