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If the Green Bay Packers do win on Sunday and make it to the Super Bowl, former general manager Ted Thompson will share a large portion of the credit with Brian Gutekunst.
Thompson’s passing on Wednesday put a somber note on the lead-up to this weekend’s NFC Championship Game, as the Packersget ready to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Though Thompson took a great deal of heat from Packers fans over the years, the fact is that he always fielded a competitive team and every decision he made was focused on helping the franchise win.
The process and the intent were always there. Results varied, particularly with a few of his drafts in the middle years. But late in his career, Ted pulled the trigger on some tremendous draft picks who remain core members of the team even in the franchise’s third season following his stepping down.
After seeing the reactions that Packers players and members of the organization expressed on Thursday, it’s clear just how much he meant to those around him, those close to him, those who worked with and for him. And he means a tremendous amount to the organization, which is determined to go out and win Super Bowl LV, partly in his honor.
Go win it for Ted, boys.
Ted Thompson was mystery to Packers players, fans | Packersnews.com
This profile on Thompson from 2007 helps illustrate who he was as a person, and it should be required reading before anybody criticizes the man for his approach or decisions.
Players, colleagues, friends remember Ted Thompson | Packers.com
Thompson put together a huge part of the current Packers roster, and many of the team's current and former players took to social media to express their thanks to him and their sadness over his passing.
Ted Thompson’s fingerprints are all over this Packers team | Packers Wire
Indeed, the Packers currently have 13 players who were acquired by Thompson, and 11 of those players are starters. Plus, his final two transactions as GM were signing Davante Adams and Corey Linsley to contract extensions, and those two players were first-team All-Pro this season.
Packers' Davante Adams and the college coach who unlocked top gear – The Athletic (subscription)
Speaking of Adams, he had a conversation with his old position coach from Fresno State, Keith Williams, after last year's loss in the NFC Championship. Williams says that there was suddenly a different drive in #17 and the two talk every week now. Whatever they talk about, it's working.
Atlanta-area teen stole nearly $1M from Kroger grocery store over 2 weeks, police say | NBC News
This is impressive creativity, but he really didn't think about the long game -- this is like missing a decimal in the software the main characters created in Office Space. How does Kroger's system even process a return for an $87,000 item?