Packers Reacts Survey: Would you rather the team had an owner?

Mar 28, 2023 - 11:46 PM

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We have just one question for the fine readers at Acme Packing Company this week: Would you rather the Packers had more traditional team ownership?

Obviously, it’s a loaded question. The Packers are the only publicly owned team in major sports. With the recent conversation about how “cold” the front office and management structure is — brought on by quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ comments on The Pat McAfee Show — it’s worth having a discussion about how the team is run.

Rodgers argued that the Packers should treat players better on the way out, without giving clear or direct examples, aside from naming names. At this point, all we can assume is that Rodgers would rather the team transition from getting rid of players “a year too early” to “a year too late,” even though it’s hard to find a list of aging former Packers who had success into their thirties with another team. This mentality has been engrained in the organization since general manager Ron Wolf through Ted Thompson and now Brian Gutekunst.

Last offseason, former Cleveland Browns general manager Michael Lombardi (no relation to Vince Lombardi, somehow) made the case that if the Packers had a traditional ownership structure, they wouldn’t have had the issues that they’ve had with Rodgers, as an owner would have stepped in and given him whatever the quarterback requested instead of letting “issues” compound on top of each other. On the other hand, who knows if the Packers would even still be in Green Bay if the public didn’t own the team and their shareholders didn’t vote on the Packers’ board of directors that name the team president, who serves as Green Bay’s defacto “owner.”

On Tuesday, former Packers tackle Mark Tauscher took to Twitter and said that the release of Jordy Nelson and the drafting of Jordan Love were “the dagger to the relationship that never ever recovered,” in reference to Rodgers’ alliance with the organization. Who knows if having an owner would have smoothed over some of the rough edges that the front-office-led team is perceived of having, at least in the eyes of Rodgers. At the moment, though, it’s worth mentioning that New York Jets owner Woody Johnson seems to be bending over backward to give Rodgers what he wants, just as the Packers temporarily did in the last two offseasons before deciding to move on from the four-time MVP.

It’s a loaded question, but is the grass really greener when an owner’s emotions can help influence some of these decisions? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.