Green Bay Packers President & CEO Mark Murphy joins Wayne & Matt

Wayne and Matt talk with retiring Green Bay Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's going on in college athletics. It would be the
same as if in the NFL we had no salary
cap and we had only one year contracts for players,
and every player is a free agency after is a
free agent after one year. I mean, you would say,
who would agree to that? I just I mean, I've

(00:22):
always been a supporter of student athlete rights, but I
think it's gone a lot too far.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
This is The Laravian la Peye Podcasts, a production of
iHeartRadio Podcasts with hosts Wayne Leraviy, the voice of the
Green Bay Packers, and Matt lape the voice of Wisconsin
Badgers football and men's basketball. The Larvian la Peye Podcast
is presented by UW Credit Union.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Here for every U Hi, Everyboddy, I'm Wayne Laravie and
I'm Matt Lope. On this episode of the Larravie la
Pey Podcast, we welcome Green Bay Packers President and CEO
Mark Murphy, who's in his final here leading the Pack
and a big weekend of college football coming up as
we shift into playoff mode. Stay tuned. We've got good
stuff coming up on the Layer of Lapay podcast. Ready

(01:11):
to give fees the stiff arm uw Credit Union can
help because since nineteen thirty one they've been committed to
eliminating fees for members joined today UWCU dot org ensured
by NCUA terms and conditions apply. We welcome in the
President CEO of the Green Bay Packers, Mark Murphy, to
the program. As mentioned earlier, Mark is in his final

(01:33):
year leading the Packers. He'll be succeeded by Ed Policy,
who currently serves as Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel. Mark,
let's talk about your career. You have had an amazing
career and you've got so many degrees that I think
you're overqualified for just about free. But you start upstate

(01:55):
New York. You're a wonderful high school athlete baseball and football,
and you had some baseball scouts looking at you in
high school. And tell us about that.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
A little bit, Uh, I didn't you know? Well, yeah,
I was wasn't heavily recruited coming out of high school
for for football or baseball, you know, I, but you know,
I loved I kind of grew up around athletics. My grandfather,
Hank Hodge was his name, was a long time had

(02:28):
baseball coach and athletic director. Clarkson College up and you
may know that from Wayne from from hockey, yep, the
hockey powerhouse. But yeah, no, I was very fortunate. I
was kind of a late bloomer, you know. And uh,
you know, I ended up going to Colgate, loved, loved Colegate,

(02:49):
met my wife there. Probably the best thing that happened
to me. But yeah, I wanted to play football and basketball,
and my first year played uh, both football and basketball.
I made the varsity football team, uh and started back
then we had a we had you had a freshman
football team and a jv football team, but ended up uh,

(03:11):
you know, playing on the varsity and our season went
almost into December. So I was kind of way behind
and in terms of basketball and then but then my
last three years I played baseball. I was never drafted,
but I did coming out of Colgate, I had uh
that's when I had my offers to turn professional in baseball.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Wow, I was.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
A outfielder and I couldn't hit the curve. I think
that I would have I would have probably had a
long career in the minors. That's the good thing about
And with the NFL, of course, I wasn't drafted. And
if if you have a lot of time. I'll tell
you my draft day story. But uh yeah, at least
in the NFL, you either make it or not. There's

(03:53):
not a minor league system. You know that, you know
you could be I end up playing you know, five
ten years and the miners and never make it up.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
We've got plenty of time for that story. We've got
as much time as you have, so fire away, all right.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
So it was my senior year at Colgate and back
then the draft was twelve rounds was held over two days,
and you know, there wasn't as much information. I'd had
some scouts come to Colgate and I don't look at me,
and uh so I thought I wasn't sure, but I

(04:28):
thought I would probably get drafted. So, uh first day
of the draft, I get a call from George Allen,
who was head coach of the Washington Redskins, and he said, Mark,
we really like you. We want to fly you down
to Washington, d c. And we're going to draft you.
It was like, oh my god. I was liking heaven.
So that was the first day. So I figured, well, well,

(04:51):
maybe I'll get drafted later in the first day. But
uh so I flew down drove up. They drove me up.
I drove up to Syracuse and caught got a flight
down to Washington.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
D C.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
And uh, I got they picked me up, and they
were like two or three other players. I thought that
was kind of odd.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
And they drove us from National Airport down downtown d
C all the way out to Dallas Airport and stayed
at the Marriott Hotel there. And so I'm ready, I'm thinking,
first thing in the morning, going to get up, go
to the Redskins facility, going to get drafted. But uh,
they put me in a car again with like three

(05:34):
other players and drove us all the way, if you know, Washington,
d C. From Dallas Airport all the way into the city,
which was really nice, you know, because I'd never seen Washington,
d C. Got to see you know, the Capitol and
the National Washington National Monument, and we had lunch there,
which and we didn't have cell phones then, but the

(05:56):
driver of the car kept stopping and going to phone
booth and made the calls. So finally about three or
four in the afternoon, they drove us out to the
Redskins facility and so they put us in a room
and then they called. I get called into George Allen's

(06:18):
office and George says, Mark, the draft just ended. You
weren't drafted. Uh, here's a contract. Why don't you take
a minute read through it and then sign it. And
then he turned to us. He turned to his assistant
and said, uh, Mark if he said, if Mark doesn't
sign it, let's get that safety from Oklahoma that we

(06:39):
liked so much. So I didn't have an agent. I
didn't know what was going on, and so I called
back to my apartment and my wife Laurie, who's my girlfriend.
Then she said, what's going on? What you what are
you doing? I said, what do you mean? He goes,
all these teams are calling for you, and yeah, nobody

(06:59):
could get in touch with me. So the Redskins basically
hit me out so that nobody else could get it.
Because George Allen didn't like rookies, he didn't like draft picks,
so he he's infamous for trading the same draft pick
multiple times. So but uh, it's kind of a funny story,
and you would know this way, and uh, you know,

(07:21):
fast forward, fast forward many years. You know, I'm in
the NFL, working in the league, and get to work
with George George Allen's son Bruce, And just out of
curiosity I said to Bruce once, I said, Bruce, you know,
did your father ever tell you what he did to
me on the draft day? And he looked at me
and said quick complaining it worked out all right for you.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
We're talking with Mark Murphy, president CEO of the Green
Bay Packers, who, as a aspiring NFL player, was stashed
on draft days. I mean, that's almost that's got to
be illegal in Oh.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, I actually think they made it illegal like the
next year.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
And for the younger listener. By the way, Mark was
taught about George Allen's distaste for rookies. I mean, you
go back to the seventies Redskins teams and they were
known as the over the hill game. So that really
tells you all you need to know about what George
Allen thought about rookie players.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah. Well, and you know I think back, gosh, you know,
my rookie year, I was self fortunate to make the team.
But the good thing we only had they had like
two or three draft picks, so it wasn't like I
was competing with twelve draft picks to make the team.
And yeah, and it was just there were so many

(08:44):
great veteran players that I learned from, probably Kenny Houston
Hall of Fame Safety. Being able to play with him
for a couple of years was great. Chris Hamburger might
have been the smartest player I've ever played with. He
uh And actually, and I ended up doing it myself.

(09:05):
George George had he called it the field General, so
he you know, and Chris did everything he made, He
called every play audible, got us in and out of things,
and being able to be there with somebody like him
and some of those other veterans was really invaluable.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
What was George Allen like as a coach? You know?
Years later I got to meet him and spent some
time about oh an afternoon with him at WGN in Chicago.
He was doing some tour promoting some kind of healthcare
something or was something with to deal with health. But
what was he like to play for? Because you played
for him and then you later played for a great coach? Uh?

(09:48):
You know I played for.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Two Hall of Fame, Yeah, yeah, George Allen and then
Joe Gibbs yep. And the in between was a man
named Jack Party who was pretty good too. Yeah, so
I'm yeah, No, George, George was a character. Now, he
would do anything if he thought it would help you win.
And uh and he was probably the most enthusiastic coach

(10:12):
I ever. I mean he was just so positive. Uh
and and and defensively when he was just a brilliant coach.
He was ahead of his time. Uh. He invented when
he was with the Chicago Bears, he was a defensive coordinator.
He invented the nickel defense.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yeah, under Georgia Hallis, I believe at the time in the.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Now is the base basically that's that's what teams play
the majority of the time. Yeah, no doubt five defensive.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
When George left and George Allen, for those who don't know,
he was a he was a great coach. He he
broke in under George Hallis and then went to the Rams,
did a heck of a job there, then left there,
went to the Redskins of Washington Football Club. I guess
what we should call them today. But anyway, he goes
there and and he decides, okay, I want my guys

(11:03):
from LA to committee brought in those guys. They ran
nineteen seventy two Super Bowl against Miami. I believe that
was Miami's unbeaten team. Yeah, and lost like thirteen to
seven or something like that. And he was a he
was a tremendous coach. So then you get Joe Gibbs,
and that's when you really came in.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
Wait, I did you ever hear the famous line that
Jack k and Cook said about George Allen? No, no,
excuse me. It was Edward Ben Williams who was the
controller acting owner and Edward william Edward Ben and Williams
was such a tremendous person, probably the best trial attorney
maybe in the history of law. But he talked about

(11:44):
George Allen. He said, we gave him an unlimited expense
budget and he exceeded it.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
That's great classic.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
No, But yeah, I mean Joe Gibbs, gosh, you know
such you know, it's it's as I think back on it,
I was about halfway through my career, and you know,
Jack Party had left. I can't remember, you know, circumstances,
But I mean, I really liked Jack Party. He was

(12:18):
a great defensive coach, kind of in the mold of
George Allen. He'd played for George. So when they hired
Joe Gibbs. Nobody really knew much about him. He had
a reputation, had never been a head coach, but had
a great reputation as an offensive coordinator. And gosh, you know,

(12:39):
I think back, you know how much how much I benefited,
you know, from being able to work and see somebody
like Joe Gibbs. Like I said, I was about halfway
through my career. I was a captain of the defense,
and so you know, got to know Joe pretty well
and just watch him come in and set up his

(13:01):
system and just the way he worked with people. It's
was just invaluable. And I can't you know, I just
I have so much respect for you look at him
and to have the success that he had as a
coach in the NFL and then now I don't follow
NASCAR closely, but he's put together a dominant team there,

(13:25):
you know, and and it's just, you know, it's a
tribute to the kind of person he is. And now
people don't remember this. I mean, you think, you know
Joe Gibbs, Hall of Fame coach. His first year, we
started out zero and five, and you know he and
and you know he he he didn't you know, panic
he kept he really stayed true to himself and we

(13:47):
turned things around. We ended up going eight and three
second half of the season, and then the next year
was a strike year, and I was obviously I was
actively involved in that. I was the Redskins player rap
and I was vice president of the union, and I
was involved in negotiations. But you know, we ended up
we started out too and oh and then we're on

(14:09):
strike for fifty seven days. But uh, you know, ended
up being the number one seed and then you know,
ended up winning the Super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (14:19):
With a rather famous run in that game from right.
It's one of the most famous places in Super Bowl history.
You could see, yeah, I think right now.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Now, John Riggins, I can tell you a lot of
Rigo stories. My roommate most of my career was a
man named Ron Saul who was a character. Uh and
but he and John Riggins were best friends. So John
Riggins was always in It was always in our room.

(14:52):
Uh you know, he was Uh, but John is just uh,
one of my one of my favorite teammates. And and
obviously n so it was too, but just had from
unbelievable sense of humor.

Speaker 4 (15:05):
Are you getting a friend of mine who played for
the he played for the Redskins after after after you did,
Jim lashe he was back for one of the Super
Bowl reunions. I think, yeah, and it tries to keep
in touch as much as he can. And you all
have unbelievably busy lies. But are you able to connect
with your teammates back from the old days with the
Redskins to this day?

Speaker 1 (15:27):
You know, it's it's it's funny you mentioned that, I'm
going to say two or three years ago when we
played in what I can't remember if it was Washington
Football team or Commanders or Redskins then, but it was
alumni weekend, so I had a chance to see a
lot of former players, former teammates. But yeah, I mean,
with my schedule with the Packers, it's you know, it's

(15:49):
really hard. I'm not I don't get back to many
many games. And unlike unlike here, where very few of
our former players live in the Green Bay area, with Washington,
quite a few players ended up making Washington their homes
just because there's so many more opportunities there.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
Sure, sure, Mark, when you were playing, you're also continuing
your education, right, I mean, and not to get a degree,
but to get another degree. You were what NBA and finance,
and then later law school, and then even later you
started working for the government and Department of Justice. Correct
for four years?

Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yeah, exactly, Yeah, yeah, no, I yeah, I mean, you know,
I wasn't drafted, so I didn't think. I wasn't sure
how long my career would last. So and you know,
it was different than Wayne. The off season programs were
pretty limited. But yeah, I so my first year I

(16:50):
worked in the off season, and then my second year
I applied to business school at American University and ended
up taking me three years. I'd go full time in
the in the spring semester and then take like one
course in the fall. But yeah, now I and then

(17:12):
law school. Yeah, that's I did that. After my career,
I worked worked for the Players Association and then went
to law school at Georgetown at night.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Your experience with the Players Association, and you mentioned it,
there were two major and I was in the league
at the same time. There were two major strikes, the
one in the early eighties and one of the later eighties,
right eighty seven, I want to say, there was another
work stoppage type thing, and that's where they brought in
the replacement players. And all that other stuff.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
My goodness, I remember, I well, I was working for
the players, and so in eighty two I was an
active player, and then in eighty seven I was working
for the NFLPA. Yeah, I remember. We did not think
that they would we we thought they would be very
reluctant to play games with replacement players. And yeah, I

(18:06):
remember going to RFK and uh, you know, walking the
picket line with the players and you know, and they
bust in the replacement players. But it did, you know
it uh, you know, it did allow that the games
continued to be played. The ratings were not good, fans
didn't come out, but it kept the game going. And uh,

(18:29):
for what we ended up doing, we didn't end up settling.
Then we ended up coming back off the because a
lot of the players started crossing the picket line, and
we eventually ended up coming back and then uh decertified
as a union and filed an anti trust lawsuit. And
then it was after I think we were a couple

(18:50):
of years though, Wayne, where we were without a collect
a bargain agreement. Funny now you think about now and
you know, we're we're in the second of back to
back ten year collective bargain agreements. Yeah, having the labor
pieces tremendous for the league.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
But a lot of and I'm sure you feel about this,
feel proud at least that you know a lot of
what you guys sacrificed for, yeah, probably led to better
benefits for players. You know, I know, the money exploded
and all that, and that's what really is the salve
for the wound. But nonetheless, I mean, you guys really

(19:29):
there were some things that had to be hammered out,
and well you know that.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
I mean, and the principal was we wanted to share
of the revenues. And you know, the when I don't
know if you ever got to know Jack han Cook,
who was the owner of the Redskins kind of a
it's larger, it was a lot larger than life character.
But they asked him about it and he said, and

(19:58):
this is the way he talked. Mark Murphy is a
fine young man, but I do not want him as
a partner. So that was kind of the mindset is
you know, if you give the players a percentage of
the revenue, then you're making them partners. And but you know,
look what we have now, it's a system that works

(20:21):
and you know, both the players and the owners are
incentivized to generate more revenue and the players get their percentage.
So it has really I think our system has really
worked well and it's withstood the test of time.

Speaker 4 (20:38):
So Mark, in those days, if someone would have approached
you and said, Mark, you don't know this now, but
someday you're going to be president and CEO of the
Green Bay Packers, you would have responded how.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
I would have said, you're crazy? Yeah, well, yeah, I
mean Jack can Cook called me a communist. That's I mean,
that's how we were food is you know, we were
radicals and we were looking you wanted a workers to
have a percentage of the revenue. That's an American.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
So you have a perspective that maybe no one else
has in a position like yours, a player, a player representative,
you know, not to mention a Super Bowl champ. How
much has all of that experience helped you in your
role now with the Green Bay Package?

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Oh, I think it's been invaluable. Yeah, and you know,
just particularly you know, in terms of relating to you know,
particularly our players and coaches and what they go through.
Now it's I feel very fortunate to have have the
background and experience, and uh, you know, I've seen I've

(21:48):
seen a lot. I've seen an awful lot, you know
when I'm almost seventy now, so you've seen an awful lot, you.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
Know, Mark, I think the league has leaned on you two.
I know you've been involved with the more recent negotiations
on these big ten year contracts. That perspective. There's nobody
else as in ownership that has that in this league, right,
I mean player representative, union work, I mean union worker

(22:17):
and representative of the union. Now you're on the other side.
There's just no one who has that kind of you know, perspective.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
I would think, yeah, but you know, I mean they're
you know that. I have tremendous respect for some particularly
some of the owners, particularly you know, like an Art Rooney,
you know, George McCaskey. Their families have been involved and uh,
you know, in the sport and the league for so

(22:47):
long that they've seen everything. But yeah, you're right. I mean,
having worked for the players and been a player myself,
I think it does give me a perspective that I
do think it's helpful, particularly on some of the committees.
And I'm fortunate enough to sermon.

Speaker 4 (23:05):
Or to fill in the blank for and I know
most fans noticed, but for those who don't. Before Mark
has the role that he has now as president and
CEO of the Packers, he was an athletics director, first
at Colgate for for more than a decade and then
at Northwestern in the mid two thousands. When did all
of that get on your radar professionally, Mark, to get
into your first college athletics in the role that you had,

(23:28):
and then you know, obviously eventually with the Green Bank Packers.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, it's a great question. You know, I didn't. You know,
I mentioned before, I I'd kind of grown up around
it a little bit with my grandfather, but I didn't
really see that necessarily as a career path. But you know,
having played in the NFL and then had the experience
of working for the Players Association, it did give me

(23:52):
quite a bit of experience in terms of you know,
uh sports, And you know, so once I left the
NFL Players Association, as you guys mentioned, I ended up
working as a trial attorney for the Justice Department, and
I actually loved that. I mean it was you know,

(24:13):
when when you graduate from law school kind of the
two you could go to a larger firm, and really
you're probably carrying some an older attorney's bag and you're
you're really not not in court, you're not doing a
lot of work. But when you work for the government,
you end up having a lot more responsibility. And since

(24:35):
I was a little older, I really because when I
think when I started law school, I was like thirty
years old. So I really enjoyed working for the for
the government. But you know, so I've been there about
three or four years, but I really did miss my
involvement in athletics, and when the athletic director position at

(24:58):
Colgate opened up, I did express an interest in it.
I was very fortunate a man that has been really
been a mentor to me and a real, uh kind
of a guiding light for me in my career. I
was a man named fred Dunlap, and he was my
senior year at Colgate. He came in he was a

(25:20):
Colgate alum, but he was a very successful head coach
at Lehigh, which was one of our one of our rivals,
but he was hired as a head coach and athletic
director at Colgate.

Speaker 4 (25:31):
UH.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Going into my senior year and I was captain of
the team. Uh so, kind of the same thing with
Joe Gibbs, you know, watching Fred Dunlap come in and
kind of establish him himself as the head coach in
a d uh and we ended up Yeah, we were
like a five hundred team and now all of a

(25:52):
sudden with Fred Dunlap, you know, we you guys will
never way we ended up. Back then, it was so different.
Our biggest rival was Rutgers, and going into the Rutgers
game on Thanksgiving Night, well they ended up moving. It
was so it was on ABC. It was on Thanksgiving Night.
We were I'm going to say we were nine and

(26:14):
one or ten to one, and Rutgers was undefeated, and
both teams were ranked in the top twenty five and
we ended up losing seventeen to nine. But it was
on a national national TV game. So that was the
last game of my college career. But really, you know,
and Fred just just was a great coach, a great person,

(26:37):
and so he was so he was really has been.
Really he was really helpful, and so I ended up
succeeding him and worked closely with him kind of in
the transition period. But you know, I so that really
kind of changed me from a legal career to you know,

(26:57):
you know, career and athletics administration and I, you know,
I loved and you know the other part of it.
My wife Laura and I at the time we had
four young kids and so the thought of being able
to raise them in Hamilton, New York, where Colgate is
it's kind of a small college town. Uh it was great,

(27:19):
you know that, And that's really where the kids grew up.
And Hamilton's the kind of town where you know, everybody
knows everyone else, and uh, you know, it just was
really really was uh really worked out well, and the
kids have we all have such fond memories of of
Hamilton and Colgate and my and Lauren and I were

(27:40):
married in Hamilton, so we have really strong connections to
to Colgate.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
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Speaker 3 (28:01):
We're talking with Mark Murphy, president CEO of the Green
Bay Packers. So how did Northwestern come into play for you,
because that's where Matt and I got to know you
a little bit.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Yeah, yeah, an interesting story. It's a it's a really
kind of a valuable lesson. You know, you never know
in your life when you make connections in one area
and then it'll benefit you down the road in another area.
But when I was at Colgate, I was I'm going

(28:31):
to say, I don't know, four or five years into
my tenure at Colgate, and I was contacted about the
AD position at Princeton and they're the head of the
search committee for the Princeton AD search was a man

(28:51):
named Henry Deanon Well Henry, and so I ended up
I interviewed for the Princeton job, and basically I ended
up saying, listen, I really feel I've got havn't been
at Colgate long enough. So I withdrew from the search.
And Henry then became the president at Northwestern University, and

(29:15):
he remembered me from the church at Princeton and contacted
me and said, would you be interested in coming to Northwestern?
And you know, in some ways, you know, by then,
I think I'd been at Colgate, you know, ten eleven years.
But also you know, Princeton and Colgate were kind of

(29:35):
similar Ivy League Patriot League, and the thought of being
an ad in the Big ten was pretty attractive in
the Chicago area, So I was a big move. But
you know, I probably wouldn't be in my position today
had I not taken the job at Northwestern.

Speaker 4 (29:56):
Can you imagine being an athletic director today?

Speaker 1 (30:01):
Connection with you, I was just gonna say, Matt, I
am so glad I'm not an athletic director. I have
so many friends that I talked to. Uh, it's just
it's it's crazy, what's going on, And I don't think
it's sustainable. Well, this is the way I would describe it, Matt,

(30:22):
is what's going on in college athletics. It would be
the same as if in the NFL we had no
salary cap and we had only one year contracts for
players and every player is a free agency after what
is a free agent after one year? I mean you
would say, who would agree to that? It's now. I just, yeah,

(30:47):
it's crazy, and I mean I've always been a supporter
of student athlete rights, but I think it's it's going
a lot too far.

Speaker 4 (30:57):
Can you imagine one of your star players coming up
to you and saying he wants to go win to
the portal right before the playoffs? I mean that's basically
what's happening.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yeah, well, or the the u n l V quarterback
was at holy Cross and so and he was obviously
a great player at the Paige in the Patriot League
at holy Cross and doing well for UNLV. Three games,
they hadn't he wanted they he said that they didn't

(31:27):
meet their promises, and so he after three games, he
walked away and said, uh because if once, if you
only play three games, you don't use a year of
eligibility mm hmm. And so no, it's it's it's crazy.
It's the wild wild West too, I mean, and yeah,
and it's really it's hard for the n CUBA to

(31:49):
get involved, you know, and it's yeah, there it looks
to me like they're kind of being everything's being dictated
by lawsuits. You know that you know you're losing lawsuits
and so that you have to do this, and uh no,
it's it's I really feel for not only athletic directors

(32:10):
but coaches. And look look how many great coaches. I mean,
Nick Saban, I think he just said I I I'm
tired of it, and we we were a beneficiary. Jeff
Athlete was the head coach at Boston college and he
just said, uh, I just don't want to do with
it anymore. And you know, it's funny getting to know Jeff.

(32:33):
He just he loved he all he has. He's all
I have to worry about his coaching. You know, if
you're a you're a head coach. And well, you know,
the other thing I would say when I was an
a d one of our one of the things that
you all you were was top of mind all the
time was gender equity. Are we balanced? Are we? And

(32:56):
I don't think they. I don't know does Jeff direquity
apply anymore? With the nil and great question? Yeah, yeah,
I think so. Yeah, it's been lawyers will be giddy.
There will be more of that probably ahead. Yeah, it is.

Speaker 4 (33:13):
On a more positive note when I know you've got
a couple more questions here too, We really appreciate your
time here.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Mark.

Speaker 4 (33:19):
On a lighter note, you've been you were involved in
the in the Badgers playing up there against LSU in
twenty sixteen, and then Notre Dame will be there in
September of twenty twenty six Could you give us a
little background as to how all of that comes together,
because I know it's a really special day for every
player who's on the field there, not to mention every
Badger fan who maybe can't get the Lambeau on a

(33:41):
regular basis but gets there for that game.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yeah, no, it's you know, it's been great. Yeah, and
I've obviously having been an athletic director in the Big Ten,
I have a really good relationship with going back to
Pat Richter and then Barry and yeah, I just think
it's it was something special. And I know, you know,

(34:04):
home games at Camp Handle are special too, but you know,
I think it's particularly with teams like LSU and Notre Dame.
You know, they've it's it's still going to be a
home game for Wisconsin, but uh, you know, I think
they view it as a little more neutral. And as
you said, boy that the the atmosphere for the l

(34:26):
s U Wisconsin game was unbelievable and we couldn't have
scripted it, right. I mean, it was close, game, came
down to the end, the Badgers won, and uh yeah,
that's so we we'd like to have, you know, going forward,
to have a you know, probably we try to have
one big non packer event a year in the stadium,

(34:47):
whether it's a concert or you know college football games
or a soccer friendly. Yeah. One of the things that
we'd really love to have is the Big Ten Championship game.

Speaker 3 (35:01):
Oh yeah, that would be great.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
That you know, Big Ten Championship game Army Navy would
be you know, that tends to be mostly on the
East Coast. But I think was the Packers, uh you know,
history and tradition of lambeau Field, that that would be
a nice connection.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
To well getting the draft that was that that's an
accomplishment in itself, just to get the draft to come
lambeau Field next April.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Oh yeah, we're you know, it's one of those things.
And you know, you remember way and I mean hasn't
been that long that yeah, they decided to take it
on the road and of course for years it was
in New York. But you know, we raised our hand,
you know, thinking now, you know, hopefully we'll get it,
and uh, Bert, I'm really I I give Roger in

(35:47):
the League office a lot of credit. I think, Uh,
I think a lot of people probably would have looked
at just Green Bay and the size of our market,
the number of hotels and say, you know, it's not
big enough. But I think it'll be I'm a little
biased here. I think it will be the most unique
draft I think with our set with lambeau Field and

(36:10):
Title Town. Now, yeah, the fans football fans all across
the world are going to want to come to Lambo
for the draft. I think it's going to it's become
such a huge event. We anticipate we'll have over the
three days to over two hundred and fifty thousand and
they'll be they'll be staying all over the state. It

(36:32):
will be great.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
You know when the draft was forever at Radio City
Music Hall. For fans who are of certain vintage, they
remember that. But the Rockets had to perform one year
and they asked the draft to move and so.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
Brilliant o the rock Outs movement priority over the NFL Draft.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
Let's move it, and it became bigger on the road
than it was in New York City. Yeah, it's just amazing.

Speaker 4 (37:02):
There's a there's an old line mark that the days
are long, but the years fly. I don't want to assume,
but maybe I will hear. Can I can I assume
that's the case with you in seventeen years in this
position with.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
Oh my gosh, yeah, that's it's hard to believe. Wow,
teams in It seems like I just started. You know,
it seems like, you know, it wasn't that long ago
that uh yeah, Brett Farre walked in my office and said,
I have an itch.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
Oh Mark, I forgive me. I don't have the context
of this, but you made one of the all time
great remarks. During the Brett Favre saga in the summer
of two thousand and eight, the reporters were grilling you about,
you know, well where are we with far over this,
that and the other thing. You said, well, we haven't
crossed the rubicon yet, and everybody said, what what I mean?

(38:01):
You were talking a level above the rest of maybe
three levels above. It was, so it was real, oh by.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Oh, and we you know, we were we had what
we call our tailgate tour, so we go, we had players,
and we go across the state and of course, you know,
it's all positive publicity. We're raising money for charities, and
the only thing every stop was what's going on with
Brett Favre.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
Of course, well could you wait.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
It's funny how life sometimes comes full circle. Yeah, uh yeah,
you know, we we and it's hard to believe. I mean,
Aaron Rodgers is what forty one years old? Now, yeah,
we felt really good about Aaron Rodgers. We thought that, uh,
you know, he was ready to take over as a starter,
and yeah, thank god he turned out to be as

(38:55):
good a player as he is.

Speaker 4 (38:56):
Now, Now, what's the and I should emphasize here, you're
still going, You're not You're not finished in the world yet,
you haven't retired yet. But as we sit here today,
what what do you reflect on if assuming you have
ten seconds to do that every day or any day,
but what do you have the most pride in with
the organization? What has occurred in your seventeen Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Well, you know, I'd say the consistent success. It's hard
to win in the NFL. I mean, the league's really
designed to have everybody five hundred eight and nine and
eight or eight and nine. But you know, the consistent success.
Obviously the Super Bowl, I mean that's your goal, and uh,

(39:44):
you know it was that was very, very rewarding. It
was kind of a little surprise, you know, you kind
of we got got into the playoffs, and you know
that's the real key is you know, to be playing
your best as you head into the playoffs and certain
we did that in twenty ten. Yeah, and I you know,
I think the Lambeau Field, I think, you know, it's

(40:07):
such a such an iconic stadium, and I think what
we've done, and it's the whole organization. You know, we're
just so unique in terms of our structure and then
the type of people that we have working on you know,
so many different things in the organization, but making sure
that Lambeau continues, you know, to be really a unique

(40:32):
stadium and the fans have a great experience. We don't
have all modern amenities that some of the newer stadiums have,
but we have that a some that really help us.
But I don't think we've taken away from what makes
Lambeau feel special. And so I think that's that's been
a real positive. And then and Title Town, that's I

(40:54):
think that's been a really nice addition to this area
and the community. And it's been fund to see how
that has kind of grown and developed and how it's
been accepted by the community.

Speaker 3 (41:07):
We're talking with Mark Murphy, president CEO of the Green
Bay Packers. Mark, just for the general fans who may
not know, you know, you wonder, Okay, why are the
Packers getting into Title Town or restaurants and malls and
all this other stuff. And you mentioned that it has
a lot to do with securing the future of the team.

(41:28):
You know, I don't want you to go into I
mean it could be a long answer, but what is
the basic How does that work? How does Title Town
and the investments that you guys have made around lambeau
Field solidify the future of the Packers as you see it?

Speaker 1 (41:43):
Yeah, so well, I think you're yeah, absolutely, that's part
of it. But also waye, you know, we're a community
owned team, so for us, you know, giving back to
the community is one of our core principles, and you
can do that in a charitable way. But also you know,
I think, uh, you know, Title Town is a good example,

(42:05):
you know what what a great addition to the community,
you know, and it's not just the tumbing hill of
the skating trail. I mean, it's uh, you know, it's
it's really something special and you know it. Uh, but
you're right, I mean times are really good now, but
that's not always going to be the case. And you

(42:26):
know there could be times where we go go through
down the road work stoppages and we don't have a rich.
We don't have a wealthy, deep pocketed owner to turn to,
so uh for us investing in the community and some
of the things that we've done. Uh, and the investment
in the stadium too is is obviously crucial as well.

(42:49):
But and then you know, Wayne, we've also uh, you know,
we again we don't have the deep pocket owner, but
we've created what we call the a Packer's Preservation Fund.
I think that's probably it's over five hundred million now
and hopefully we'll never have to use it. But I
think that's really been kind of a good stewardship, making

(43:12):
sure that we're kind of protecting the organization for the
things that we might face in the future.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
Always trying to tell people from Ohio. And I was
aware of the Packers traditional a PARTI or so on
and so forth, but I never fully understood how passionate
fans are until I moved here. I mean, you played,
you know, you played against the Packers, but was it
similar in your role when you came here, Mark, you knew,
but not really and then when you get here you

(43:41):
fight out in a hurry of what.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
Yeah absolutely, yeah, no, yeah, yeah, you don't really You
can read about it and hear about it, but once
you're here and live in it, it's yeah. Well, for instance,
like you know the way, Yeah, you know, last night
and Seattle, you know, one of the toughest places to
play our I felt like our fans took over the stadium.

(44:06):
I mean that's, uh, we did well. Yeah, and that's
We're so fortunate to have kind of fan support that
we do. And yeah, you know, I think the connection
that our fans have to the team and the organization
is unlike any other, uh in all professional sports, and

(44:28):
a lot of it is. I think the main thing
is our ownership structure. You know, so many of our
fans are shareholders. But also I think, you know, people
just love and you know, we have a lot of
a lot of fans who maybe live in let's say Washington,
d C. Or Cincinnati, and their fans their main team.

(44:52):
They're fans of their team, but they really liked the
idea of the Packers and the community owned team, small
town in our history and tradition, and so we're a
lot of fans second favorite team. But now we're yeah. Well,

(45:12):
and Wayne knows a little bit about this. We started
a program. Actually it was my daughter Emily who was
involved in it. Packers everywhere and it's such a great program.
It's social media and pep rallies before games. But our
fans are everywhere, I mean everywhere when we travel. I

(45:34):
mean when Wayne, we were in Brazil, when we're in London. Yeah,
there's Packer fans everywhere. You know.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
I always say this, if you're a fan of the Cowboys,
the Steelers, the Yankees, and you're on the road in
a visiting stadium, you're never alone. Yeah, plenty of fans
of those teams are going to be with you at
that stadium, whether it's Kansas City or Seattle. Last night,
at the end of the fourth quarter, Larry said to me,

(46:03):
Larry McCarron said to me that, wow, look at the
twelfth man is leaving. All that was left in the
end was were Packers fans. And you know, I had
never seen that at that stadium, you know, Seattle.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
But hey, Mark Gane, I feel like, don't you feel
like we exercised some demons winning that game last night?

Speaker 3 (46:25):
A few but that but that championship game demon may
never go away.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
Now as much as as everything that was at stake.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
Yeah, oh god, and as well as the Packers played
that day. And it's the twenty fourteen NFC Championship game, folks,
is what we're talking about, Packers and Seahawks. And this
was the height of the Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, you
know battles that went on, and the Packers played so
well and they were about to dispatch Seattle in the

(46:59):
final five minutes.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
We're going to.

Speaker 3 (47:02):
Occurrences happened and the Packers somehow lost that game. And
I will never forget sitting outside that stadium on the
bus waiting to go to the airport. What an abbsolute
that was as depressing a situation as I've ever seen
in my life on any venue anywhere.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
Who brought that up? Was that? I bring that out
for Bro, You.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
Brought that up. Mark, Those wounds are still there.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
You know. Wait, I'll never and you know, when you've
been involved in athletics as long as I have, you've
seen the good and the bad. But that was one
of those games where for us to lose, about five
different things had to happen, and each one of them happened,
and you know that, I'll never forget the picture I've

(47:48):
seen the Jordan Nelson on the Onza kick like yeah,
waiting like this and I'm about to catch the ball,
and of course Brandon Bostik, who was supposed to block,
ended up trying to recover himself and we all know
what happened.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
Yeah, one thing after another, Hey, Mark, before we let
you go, Just in general, you're a CEO, You're gonna
have good times, bad times. You're gonna have tough decisions
to make along the way. When you have a tough decision,
maybe it's hiring a football firing a football coach, Maybe

(48:26):
it's the Brett Farv situation once come back in two
thousand and eight for retirement, any number of things that
happened along the way. What are you as an executive?
What do you rely on? Is it a gut feel
for these things? Or is what do you do? What
do you rely on?

Speaker 1 (48:43):
You know, it's a great question. And well, first of all,
I think sometimes you need to take a kind of
step back and take a breath. And you know, every
it always, every situation seems like it's larger than life
and it's going to be challenging. You know, you mentioned
the Brett favre. I mean, yeah, that was like early

(49:09):
my tenure, you know, most famous player in the NFL.
Just but you know, I think sometimes and I learned this,
I think probably from my father, is uh, you know,
don't He used to say, don't sweat the small stuff,
you know, just focus on the bigger picture. And now

(49:30):
certainly this was a big picture. But the reality is
this happens in the NFL every year. Players move on,
you know, teams move on from players. And but it
you know, so to kind of have a longer term
perspective and kind of see what the future might might

(49:52):
might hold, I think can be helpful. But well, and
then the other thing, it's really helpful when you have
a Aaron Rogers uh to turn to as your back
up quarter of your next quarterback.

Speaker 4 (50:06):
It helps.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
Yeah, you know it is sometimes I think, you know,
one of the toughest things, and certainly as an athletic
director and in my position now, is you know, making
decisions to move on from particularly coaches, and you know
it sometimes it's you know, it's there's no magic formula,

(50:28):
but I do I think for talking to other ads,
it's you know, it's kind of a gut feeling and
you can tell when somebody has lost the team yeah, lost.
You know, you can see the players have kind of
really starting to question, you know, what we're doing as
as a team.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
There's one more thing I wanted to ask you about,
and it's something that happened I want to say twenty
eighteen or thereabouts. The structure of the Packers as set
up by Bob Harlan was but there was business and
on the football side, the general manager, he ran everything
in football. Coach answer to him. You decided that this
juncture late in the two thousand and tens, twenty to

(51:13):
eighteen or whatever it was, that hey, we're going to
change this a little bit here, and that you know,
we got a new general manager. He's going to report
to me. We're going to hire a head coach, he too,
is going to report to me. That's a little bit different.
That came under some scrutiny in the media, et cetera,
et cetera. The question I have if you, Mark Murphy,

(51:35):
the guy people were on the football side were reporting to,
had not played in the NFL, had not been involved
with all you had been involved with in your career,
would you have made that decision?

Speaker 1 (51:48):
Oh boy, Uh, that's a great question. You know it
certainly helps. You know, not only you know, have I
played in the NFL, but having been an athlete editor
director for as long as I was, and how many
coaches that I've hired over the years and and worked with. Yeah,

(52:09):
you know, I I think so, I mean going forward, Uh,
I mean, obviously it will be his call, but I
think the current system is working.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
And I you know, it'll be Ed's decision, but I
think he'll have the He'll keep the same structure. I
always thought, you the nice thing about about half of
the teams in the league have a structure similar And
obviously it's not an owner or a president like Ed
or myself, but uh, you know where the both the

(52:38):
GM and the head coach report to the owner. The
good thing about it, what I've seen is that it
really makes Brian and Matt partners in the sense that
they're working together rather than one's working for the other.
And you know, at the end of the day, structure important, Wayne,

(53:01):
but more importantly is how do people interact? How do
they work together? Yeah, That's one of the things that
that I've my entire career has really tried to focus on.
How do we how do we all work together to
make you know, make the Packers and make the organization

(53:21):
improve and go forward.

Speaker 3 (53:22):
It was a huge decision for you as an administrator,
and you're exactly right. It's worked out very well. And
I think a big part of the reason why is
because you, as the CEO, are a football person. And yeah,
I don't know if that could happen with other people.
I don't know, and I don't know what the future
holds either. ED will decide that ED policy will take over.

(53:45):
He's been with the organization for twelve years. We mentioned earlier,
he's going to do a brilliant job. It might be
a little different.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
You know, he's a lawyer, but he's got a good
football background.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
Yeah, oh, yeah, gosh, yes, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
He's very respected by you know, both Mad and Brian
and you know, and you know, the other person who's
central in all this is russ Ball.

Speaker 3 (54:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
He's very experienced probably uh handles the salary cap and
negotiations as well as any anybody in the league. So
we're very fortunate there. And he's kind of a sounding
board I think for a lot of us and within
the Packers management structure.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
Yeah, well, seems like you're on on your way build.
This team appears to be getting better as we go along.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
Yeah, you know, we we we saw it last year Wayne. Uh,
you know, we kind of snuck into the playoffs, thankfully,
we went from six to seven teams and uh. But yeah,
it's uh, it's all about uh and you know that
was what was great about the Seattle game. That's the
kind of game that we're going to have to win
on the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (54:54):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
I mean, reality is, you know, we're we're gonna be
a while. We we haven't clinched it yet, but hopefully
we'll get into the playoffs. We'll be on the road
and uh, yeah, it's tough to win on the road sometimes,
but that's that's what we're gonna have to do. And
I think the experience that we had with the playing

(55:17):
down in Dallas last year will help us. Uh. And yeah,
you know what what was really encouraging I thought in
the Seattle game was the play that our defense made.
You know, we got off the field, uh, turned the
ball over thoughts, and you know, it's you know, it's
it is. It is a quarterback driven league. And you know,

(55:40):
I think Jordan last year, in the second half of
the year, played as well as anybody. And uh, you know,
looks like he's kind of on a similar path this.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
Year, no question, no question. Mark. We can't thank you
enough for taking time out. You know, we could talk
to you all day, but we know you've got work
to do, so you know we'll let you go. But
thank you so much. Congratulations on your wonderful career you're
going to be working into July. And congratulations also on

(56:10):
being the inductee for the Packers Hall of Fame next year.
It's a tremendous honor and it's so well deserved. You
took over for Bob Harlan, a tremendously popular president and CEO,
the guy who presided over the rekindling of this franchise,
and you did it seamlessly, and that's not easy to do.

(56:31):
And that's a testament to you and the person you are.
And we're going to miss you.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
Oh, I'll tell you. It's really interesting. And I think
this says a lot about the Packers organization. So I
think I had the numbers right. Bob served as president
for about eighteen years. When I retire, I will have
served as president for eighteen years. That policy is fifty
two now and eighteen years.

Speaker 3 (56:58):
From now, that yeah, perfect.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
But I think it does show you that, you know,
the stability in terms of the leadership is is really invaluable.
You know, you look across the league way and it's
mostly in coaches, but you know some of these teams
they get in cycles where you're hiring a new head
coach every two or three years, and it's it's yeah.

Speaker 4 (57:21):
Yeah, that doesn't work. By the way, mark, If you
get if you get bored, when when the time comes
where you step away from the packers and you want
to help fix college athletics, you want to be a consultant,
I think that would be a great you know, a
little little side hustle, your your advice would be greatly appreciated.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
Anything you can do to fix it.

Speaker 4 (57:39):
If you get if you get bored, I'm guessing you
won't be.

Speaker 5 (57:41):
But if you do, well, you know, they need we
need a collective bargaining agreement for that's they really look
they should have the NFL model.

Speaker 3 (57:52):
That's yeah.

Speaker 4 (57:53):
Yeah, they're trying, but they're mid They're they're in some
things they're doing, but in what you just mentioned they're not.

Speaker 1 (57:59):
So yeah, well I have to before I have to
have a shameless plug for my golf course, Maxwelton. Bray's
up in Bailey's Harbor anytime, anytime you want to come up,
I can get you on.

Speaker 3 (58:13):
Okay, now I heard you the golf Grapevine that you
are putting in a an irrigation system.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
Yes, we're no longer going to rely on Mother Nature
to water the course.

Speaker 3 (58:25):
Okay, so that the rumor is not true. But I
heard you were going to put some irrigation there.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
We we are it. Uh yeah, so right now we
we only water the teas and greens. Yeah. With a
new system, it'll it'll be it'll be, uh be great
for the course long term. And I think you've played there.

Speaker 3 (58:47):
Right Wayne, Yep, I sure have.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
Yeah, it's uh yeah. The the main reason my wife
Lauren and I bought it. We wanted to make sure
to stay the golf course and there was some concern
that developers would develop it and turn it into condos
and uh, it's just a it's a great course with
a lot of history and want to keep it. It's
the it's by far and it's the best and only

(59:12):
golf course in Bailey Tarbor.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
Well. And you know what, when you get that irrigation
system and go easy, you know, tread lightly because we
liked the role. We get on your fair foot.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
I've heard from a lot of people, you know that
Max Rolton role. I get about an extra twenty or
thirty yards easily.

Speaker 3 (59:31):
Mark, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (59:33):
Thank you, thank you very much. Thanks Wayne, Thank you Wayne,
Thanks Wayne.

Speaker 3 (59:37):
Thank you. Well. That was fun.

Speaker 4 (59:41):
I mean for to hear from Mark Murphy, the stories.
I don't know when the guy sleeps, I feel like
America's slacker. When when you you you can reflect on
his background, what all he's done, what he's doing today,
that's a full plate and it's been that way.

Speaker 3 (59:58):
You just stretched the s of the stuff the guy
has done. And it's like, you know, in all the
degrees he's got, and you sit there and say, when
did he have time to do all of this? And
isn't he overqualified for all these jobs? But you know
he's really good. And the thing I he he brings
a steady hand to the job. And I know Ed

(01:00:21):
Policy well enough to know he'll be the same kind
of guy, very sharp football guy ed policy. His dad
was Carmen Policy, who when the San Francisco forty nine
ers and Bill Walsh exploded on America in the nineteen eighties.
He was the guy who was running the operations, so
you know ed policies. We're all looking forward to him

(01:00:42):
and he's going to do well. But boy, we'll miss
Mark Murphy because he's such a great guy, you know.
I mean, he'll come up to you practice and you
get into a conversation with him. It's just really good
guy and that's the part we'll miss. Well. We've got
football coming up this weekend, and I know the Badgers
are not involved, but hey, college football playoff? Now what
twelve teams stronger thereabouts?

Speaker 4 (01:01:03):
Yes, yep, twelve teams and four from the Big Ten,
including the Big Ten champ Oregon, longtime Big Ten Conference power,
the Oregon Ducks the number one seed. But it starts
Friday night in South Bend, Indiana playing at Notre Dame,
and that's going to be there's a lot of fascination
with Indiana, and then among the games on Saturday, Ohio

(01:01:27):
State against Tennessee, the winner plays Oregon. So there's still
some seeding issues that may be tweaked moving forward, because
you would think Oregon is a number one seed just
the way the bracket is made up. That's a tough
draw in the quarter finals. The way it works now
way and you win, you win your conference. The power

(01:01:47):
of four teams automatically get a bid. The highest ranked
group of five gets an automatic bid, the highest ranked
those of the five the four highest ranked get a
first round By so long story short, that can shuffle
the deck with where you're ranked as to how you
are seated, teams can slide down. People can look it

(01:02:10):
up and figure that out, but it just you get
some You get some pretty tricky quarter final matchups here potentially.
But I'm intrigued to see what Indiana can do playing
on the road. I'm intrigued at how Ohio State will
rebound after losing again to its rival, and that game
means so much to people on both sides. But Ohio

(01:02:34):
State has the home field, which I guess it's debatable
if that's a good thing or a bad thing if
things don't go well early, but it's still I think
this is what people have wanted a playoff, not a
four teamer, but a twelve teamer, and in a couple
years or probably fourteen, but now I think we're all
interested to see how this is going to unfold.

Speaker 3 (01:02:54):
Penn State SMU. What do you make of that game?

Speaker 4 (01:02:56):
Men? Yeah, Penn State again, SMU really showed well. I
think there were some people wondering, Okay, how good is
sm you really And even though it lost in the
ACC Championship game, lost in the last second field goal,
they're like, oh no, they're legit. I like Penn State
as we record this. They are number two quarterback who
plays in almost every game. Bo Pribulah has announced he's

(01:03:19):
going into the transfer portal. Kind of what we're talking
about with Mark, you know, about how things are just
not quite right with college athletics, but he's an athletic
QB and that maybe alters a little bit what Penn
State does. Drew Aller is there QB one and plays
the overwhelming majority of snaps. But again, at home, I

(01:03:41):
would like Penn State in this game. Tyler Warren is
just one of the best players in America tied end.
But he can do everything. He played wildcat quarterback, you
name it, he does it. They're they're really good. I
would give an edge of there to Penn State, but
I wouldn't just dismiss sm you because they are legit.

Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
The other game we haven't talked about Clemson at Texas.
Texas had a real good year. Let me ask you
this as someone who's involved heavily in the college game
and especially this football thing we're into now with the playoffs.
Has the expanded playoffs enhanced the regular season or taken
away from it?

Speaker 5 (01:04:22):
Well?

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
What do you think?

Speaker 4 (01:04:22):
What's your I think it's enhanced it because more teams
get talked about, more schools get talked about. When it
was the old BCS with the top two play for
the national championship, or the previous ten years or the
top four, that second loss pretty much all but knocks
you out, and it has the national folks bringing up

(01:04:44):
more teams like is SMU really good? Is SMU really
better than Alabama? Alabama lost three times, but it's Alabama,
So I think it's I think it's been good when
no matter what you do, there's always going to be
squawking about it, like with the seeding and who's in
who's out. But I think it's been good. There used

(01:05:06):
to be the concern about how many games do you
want to put a college athlete through? But now that
they're getting paid, you don't hear that complaints very much anymore.
And that's why I would think they're going to tweak
the tweak the format a little bit. Just my guests
next year, and in a couple of years, it's likely
we'll go to fourteen teams and then is it automatic qualifiers?

(01:05:30):
Is it top three, top four out of the big
ten sec That my guess is when they want to
take as much out of the hands of a committee
as possible other than seeding. But at the same time,
even this year, that Alabama debate kept people engaged, So
you know, I think AQS would make some sense, but people,

(01:05:54):
you know what sells, you know, in between the games,
it's the debate as to who you think should be
in and who shouldn't be.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
Like I said, Matt as a fan, just as a
consumer of the game, I love the big conferences now
And will you get Ohio State and Oregon in the
regular season? I mean, you know, come on, that's a
no brainer. And there are many games across the landscape
of college football, just big games almost every weekend where

(01:06:22):
you'd have at least one or two major games that
oh yeah, I'd watched that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:26):
Sure, yeah, and the ratings continue to be really strong.
You can't compare anything to the NFL, but the best
of the rest, it goes to college football. I mean,
where you're week in and week out getting eight nine
you know, an occasion ten million viewers for regular season
college football games. I mean Major League Baseball can't touch that.

(01:06:47):
The NBA can't touch that. And in the postseason. It'll
be curious. Now, when you get to the quarterfinals, you're
going to be going up against some NFL games, so
that's going to be difficult. The thing with me, I
think early in these first round games, are you going
to get blowouts? Yeah, you know, maybe in this age
of the portal and all of that, it might not

(01:07:08):
be as much. But you know, for the longest time,
even in the fourteen playoff it got better the last
two years, but for the majority of that time you
saw one team just getting smoked. And maybe all three games,
the two semis and the championship game were lopsided. So
you still might get some of that, but I think
once you maybe once you get to the quarters, it

(01:07:30):
starts to tighten up a little bit, and you know
you're never gonna get NFL parody, But you might have
more teams capable now because of the era we're in
with n il rev share the portal and all of that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:44):
Let me tell you something, Matt, a year year and
a half ago, if anybody told me Indiana was gonna
be in a thing like this Indiana football, really does
anyone even make the drive from Indianapolis down there to
see a football game? That was I remember way back

(01:08:05):
when when Antoine Randall l was the most exciting quarterback
in college football, and they just couldn't get people to
come watch and play. And I did a lot of
their games because they thought it was great. He was.
He was.

Speaker 4 (01:08:17):
He was a good as anybody in America. I think
I voted him back when I was a Heisman voter.
I think I know I had him in my top three,
and I might have had him overall because I just
thought he was that good. But you're right, last year
they won one big ten game. I was, I guess Wisconsin.
But the jump that they made again a new coach,
the portal, they made a massive commitment. It sounds like

(01:08:39):
to at least a very sizeable jump in their nil.
So there's collect there's a collective there and a fair
amount of money. So we'll see the sustainability of it
at a place like Indiana. But for this year, it's
fun and they took you know, their schedule was was
good for them. You know, they played one ranked team
and that was Ohio eight. But you know, now you get,

(01:09:01):
you get the stage, you get, you get to see
you're going on the road again. You're going to South Bend.
But but who knows, you know, if you're Indiana, maybe
you feel like you're playing with house money. Go let
her rip and see what happens.

Speaker 3 (01:09:12):
It's exactly right, all right, Matt, Well listen, that'll do
it for us this time. Hey, Happy holidays, Happy New
Year to all of our listeners, and and we wish
you all the best for the coming New year. Special
thanks to Mark Murphy, President CEO of the Green Bay Packers,
our guest today, our producer engineer is the incomparable Dave McCann.

(01:09:32):
Our executive producer is Jeff Tyler. For Matt, missus, Wayne,
thank you so much for listening to the Lerovian La
Pay Podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
The Larovian La Pay podcast is a production of iHeart
Radio Podcasts with hosts Wayne Larvy and Matt Lapey, with
production engineering by Dave McCann. The Larovian La Pay podcast
is presented by UW Credit Union. Here for every you
listen to. Other episodes available on the iHeartRadio app, apple
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