On Jason Wied.

Mr. Wied was a business side front office guy, and since we generally don't know everything they do, we don't talk about those guys much around here except for Harlan and Murphy (rightfully so on both counts) since they're the guys who put together the football-side leadership team and help keep it in place. I think Jason Wied needs a thank you on the way out the door however, and since I didn't see it come up elsewhere on this site, I'm breaking my self-imposed exile from APC to write it myself.

About ten years ago I attended a lecture given by then Packers VP Andrew Brandt. It was about a year after Brandt hired Wied to help him negotiate contracts and handle legal issues for the team. Most of the lecture dealt with the business of sports and Brandt's experiences. Brandt is a hyper-intelligent guy and an engaging speaker with a lot of interesting experiences to draw from. And he still took the time to speak highly of Wied's early work with the team. I first met Wied a few years later and we ran into each other a few times after that. Without going too far into the details (in the interest of preserving the privacy of the people involved) I got to watch Wied negotiate a couple of deals while simultaneously avoiding some political pitfalls that had been thrown in front of the Packers organization by those who had other agendas that conflicted with what the Packers were trying to accomplish. Wied's ability to understand both the issues in play and the motivations and agendas of the other people in the room enabled the Packers to get the deals they needed without creating problems for their business and community partners. In one specific instance, he managed to accomplish that in spite of the obvious desire of other parties to create problems.

Those deals improved the ability of the Packers fans to remain competitive financially in the NFL, and they provided new and fun ways for the fans to support the team. Wied never drafted a player, never signed a free agent, and never coached a raw rookie into a contributing player, but he made the Packers better all the same. I'm convinced that the work he did made it a little easier for the football side of the organization to be successful while he was here, and into the future as well. And he did that while, in my opinion anyway, remaining a decent, kind and good-hearted person. I wish both he and his family the best.