The Packers, in my opinion, are blessed to have the ownership situation that they are in.  Granted, the competitive landscape of the NFL somewhat "allows" the packers to thrive and even buck the system of huge TV markets and megalomanic owners.  Revenue sharing and the salary cap are essential and at the heart of the reason that a tiny Wisconsin city can continue to have an NFL franchise...but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Just for a moment, imagine if Al Davis was the owner of the Green Bay Packers--a man who walks around in public wearing clothes that Rick James would scoff at.  A man who fired and rehired Art Shell.  (It is also well documented that Art Shell's offensive Coordinator ran a bed and breakfast the year before Shell hired him!  Bed and breakfasts and NFL offensive systems do go hand in hand.)

Or, imagine if the packers were owned by Daniel Snyder or Jerry Jones--two men with obvious business acumen, but clearly have no business in meddling in football affairs.  Their egos know no bounds.  The owners of the packers are the fans of the town, but the real movers and shakers are the board of directors--which almost literally function like a corporate board.  If the current CEO/GM isn't cuttting it, the board votes you out.  You never have to worry about an egotistical owner getting into a public feud with a coach, or something like that.  I spent much of my childhood and some teenage years living just outside of Atlanta, Georgia.  The Falcons (even in the late 80s and early 90s) were an absolute abysmal franchise to watch and follow.  (Now, we all know that Green Bay had a drought in the 70s and 80s, but they obviously made the smart move of hiring Bob Harlan and the rest is history.)  Anyway, the falcons always took a back seat to the Atlanta Braves, mostly because the Braves were winning their division every year and had a chance to do something.  I can't honestly remember who owned the falcons prior to Arthur Blank, but whoever it was they didn't care about the team.  They were involved for the sole purpose of the spoils of owning a professional sports franchise--they weren't interested in making the team better, they were simply interested in owning the team--period.

This is where the parallels with business and a professional sports team tend to inter-twine--only with the packers of course, because we have this board of directors.  Corporations are driven by stock prices and profits and, if the current management style is not working, out they go.  This model also works GREAT for a sports franchise because it takes the main figurehead out of the equation.  Everyone has seen a private business at some point or another that was run by an idiot who drove it straight into the ground because he simply didn't know what he was doing--this type of scenario is nearly impossible with the GB Packers model.  If you are deemed incompetent, you get the boot....Unlike the pervading model in the NFL, which features way too many incompetent "football" boobs (like Daniel Snyder and Wayne Hyzenga) running franchises into the ground all by themselves.   Our "owner" is not driven by profits and making money--ours is driven by winning games and championships.  Our owner recognizes that if we win games and championships the money will come.  Success is not a by-product of money...money is a by-product of success!

There may only be one owner in the NFL who is equal to or better than the corporate board of directors "system" that the Packers have...his name is Robert Kraft, and his team has been to 4 Superbowls in the past 7 years.  Maybe our board of directors can bring him in as a consultant :)