To fire or not? Wolf weighs in

Ron Wolf says his decision to fire Lindy Infante as the Green Bay Packers’ coach one day after the 1991 season ended was easy.

Like his protege, current Packers General Manager Ted Thompson, Wolf inherited a coach when he took over the team's football operations and, like this year, that coach had a bad season.

However, Wolf said the similarities between 1991 and 2005 end there, because Infante and his coaching staff had created a country-club atmosphere where players didn’t fear for their jobs after the team performed poorly week in, week out.


“Those guys didn’t want to make any change on a 3-9 team,” Wolf said.

This year, on the other hand, coach Mike Sherman has benched and even cut players with his team struggling to a 3-10 record going into Monday night’s game at Baltimore. He’s changed the starter at right guard twice, left guard once and left cornerback twice. Plus, along with Thompson, he cut cornerback and former third-round draft pick Joey Thomas for not accepting accountability for his errors.


After the season, that will be one of many factors Thompson considers when determining whether to retain Sherman as the Packers’ coach in 2006.

Thompson’s hiring last January placed Sherman’s job in jeopardy because many general managers want to hand-pick their coach. The Packers’ 3-10 season has hurt Sherman’s chances, though he also has a strong overall record (56-37 in five-plus years), and the team has remained competitive despite being crushed by injuries at receiver and running back.
Thompson also has worked with Sherman for 11 months, so he knows his coach better than Wolf knew Infante after taking over as GM in November 1991.

Wolf, who hired Sherman as coach in 2000 and recommended Thompson as GM this year, offered no opinion on whether he would retain Sherman for next year.

“Only (Thompson) knows how to do that,” Wolf said. “He knows what’s taken place in the meetings, what they’re trying to get done, who can play and who can’t play, why they’re playing some.

“Only Ted could answer those questions. I certainly can’t. But he would know being in that situation. If he’s not in agreement, then he has to voice that. If he is, that’s an in-house thing.”
Though Thompson late in training camp extended Sherman’s contract for two years, through the 2007 season, the Packers’ players know that his and almost all jobs on the football side of the organization are in jeopardy after a season with a new general manager.

“I’d like to think all these coaches will be here, and I play like that,” linebacker Nick Barnett said. “I know there’s going to be changes, but you have to play like everybody’s going to be here. You don’t know what’s going to happen as far as what the organization is going to do, what coaches are going to be here, what players are going to be here, even if I’m going to be here. We’re just trying to get better in our time together and win some games, try to finish out the best we can.”

Wolf said he’s seen three Packers games this season — he attended their losses to Cleveland and Minnesota at Lambeau Field and watched their win over Detroit last week on television — and attributed most of their problems this year to season-ending injuries. They lost their Pro Bowl-caliber receiver, Javon Walker, in the regular-season opener, and their top two halfbacks, Ahman Green and Najeh Davenport, in back-to-back games in October.

“Look at the Philadelphia Eagles,” Wolf said. “They’ve got five guys on injured reserve who are Pro Bowl players. They’re 5-8, so that’s part of the deal in football here. That’s one of the reasons I’m not in it. You can’t fix your team (in mid-season) anymore. You have to play the cards you’re dealt.”

Wolf also said that quarterback Brett Favre remains a top-level NFL player and the Packers could have a quick turnaround in the offseason, though to become a championship contender, they also would need some good fortune in the first round of next year’s draft.

“It depends who you get in that draft. It depends where you’re drafting,” Wolf said. “The team right now that everybody is so enamored with is the Colts. They got (Peyton) Manning with the first pick in the draft and (halfback Edgerrin) James with the (fourth) pick in the draft. And they stunk (before then). Suddenly, they get those two players and the whole landscape changed.
“That’s kind of what happened with the Cowboys. They got (Troy) Aikman with the first pick and (receiver Michael) Irvin with I think the 10th or 11th pick, and that changed that whole thing around. That’s what has to happen.”
source : http://www.packersnews.com/