- Messages
- 5,404
- Reaction score
- 311
By BOB McGINN
Story posted here https://www.bobmcginnfootball.com/?p=993
It wasn’t too many years ago that personnel men in Green Bay below the level of general manager granted interviews on a regular basis.
Ted Thompson felt quite natural talking to me on the record when he was the Packers’ director of pro personnel from 1994-’96 and director of player personnel from 1997-’99 under the general manager, Ron Wolf.
The same went for John Dorsey, Reggie McKenzie and John Schneider once they got their feet wet and moved into supervisory positions. Mark Hatley, who was Mike Sherman’s right-hand man in personnel from 2001 until his death in July 2004, was quoted regularly as well.
Wolf, who returned 99% of my telephone calls in that era, must have encouraged his underlings to speak to the press. It’s something I’ve never asked Wolf, but my understanding is he did that as a sign of his trust in his people as well as helping them to establish reputations here and across the country that might enhance their career development.
Thompson (Green Bay), Dorsey (Kansas City), McKenzie (Oakland) and Schneider (Seattle) didn’t become GMs because they were quoted here and there in newspaper stories. By being allowed to speak, however, it enabled those scouts to present themselves to fans of the team and prospective employers in the NFL and shine a positive light on the organization.
Today, reporters are forbidden from talking to the team’s personnel staff because of the climate and policies established by Thompson. By and large, Thompson now declines to be interviewed from late August until the combine in late February.
A year ago, I sought permission to interview Jon-Eric Sullivan, a college scout for 12 years in Green Bay who recently had been promoted to director of college scouting. Request denied. His father, Jerry, agreed to speak for the son.
The team’s publicists will insist that’s the way it’s done in some other franchises. Green Bay, however, isn’t just another franchise. The fans, in effect, are the owners, and enlightened stewards of the franchise such as Bob Harlan, Wolf and many others down through the years recognized the unique structure of the Packers and encouraged transparency.
When there was something to hide, and it wasn’t that often, Harlan and Wolf offered no comment. Otherwise, they were confident enough to explain almost all their decisions to the masses … the people that, in effect, were paying their salaries and keeping them employed with their financial and emotional support.
Just about every year, the Packers send out a press release announcing changes and additions to their player personnel department. Behind Thompson’s wall of privacy are living, breathing human beings who do important work but are almost never recognized by the boss.
To the contrary, Thompson has held back numerous scouts over the years when other teams wanted to interview them. Eliot Wolf, Brian Gutekunst and Alonzo Highsmith, presently the top three aides, all have been denied chances to advance professionally because of Thompson. The latest was Highsmith, who sources said was turned back after the 2017 draft when Schneider approached Thompson about hiring him in Seattle.
If an employee wants to leave, let him leave. If the organization is as strong as Thompson says it is, he would have a deep pool of eager, capable candidates to replace them.
The problem is, Thompson lacks a degree of confidence in finding new blood. He’s cautious and hesitant, and sometimes will act only after friends in the profession convince him to do so.
Anyway, the latest staff announcement was made on the eve of training camp with news that John Wojciechowski had been promoted from college scout to director of pro personnel. It’s probably the sixth most important job in the scouting department.
Five months earlier, the Packers announced that Matt Malaspina, who just days before had been part of the staff purge by the new regime in San Francisco, had been hired as a college scout. It was notable because Malaspina is covering the Southeast, the fertile area in which some teams assign their best scout.
The Packers had operated without a pro personnel director for a couple years after one of Eliot Wolf’s five promotions within an eight-year span removed him from the day-to-day pro routine. As assistant pro director, Tim Terry in effect handled the director’s duties. Friends of Terry indicated he hoped to be promoted by the Packers.
In January 2016, Terry interviewed for the pro director job in Atlanta that went to Joel Collier. Shortly after the draft this spring, Thompson again allowed Terry to be interviewed, this time in Kansas City shortly before Dorsey was fired as GM.
Terry got the job with the Chiefs, and less than a week later Thompson made a decision and promoted Wojciechowski to the pro job.
Wojciechowski, 43, joined the Packers not long after the 2012 draft. His contract had just been non-renewed by the Dallas Cowboys after he served nine years as their Northeast scout. One source said he had a disagreement with Tom Ciskowski, at the time the Cowboys’ director of college and pro scouting.
“That happens all the time,” said Eagles senior football advisor Tom Donahoe, the former GM in Pittsburgh and Buffalo who gave Wojciechowski his NFL start as an intern with the Steelers in 1996-’97. “John’s not afraid to speak his mind. You’ve got to have scouts that are willing to get on the table for guys. You’ve got to be able to accept that. Some people get mad when you don’t agree with their opinion of a (player).”
Wojciechowski’s career as Midwest scout for Green Bay got off to a bad start following his arrest for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Other teams thought highly of him, and one source said Wojciechowski received job overtures from more than one club.
That interest, coupled with the departure of Terry, led Thompson to enact the promotion.
“He’s always been ambitious,” one of Wojciechowski’s friends in the business said. “He’s always wanted to be a director. He was driven because he realizes he’s good at what he does.
“He’s a Pittsburgh meathead that loves football. He’s got some earmarks of Dorsey. He had some opportunities, and they (the Packers) wanted him to stay there.”
Wojciechowski finished his career as a defensive end at Duquesne, then an NCAA Division I-AA school, with a school-record 24 sacks.
He began a five-year stay with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1998, working up to Midwest scout in 2001-’02 after covering the Southwest for three years as the team’s BLESTO representative.
“I run into John a lot in the spring at workouts,” said Donahoe. “John’s never forgotten his roots. He’s never forgotten that when you’re a scout you’re supposed to be a worker. He’s still that but he’s worked his way right up the ladder.
“He’s a go-getter but not in an obnoxious way. He’s a humble guy, and there’s nothing wrong with having some humility. I know John has that.
“I root for those kind of guys. They don’t think they’re the show. They want to be team players. They want to contribute. That’s what I always looked for with scouts.”
In the last few months Wojciechowski moved his family (wife Tami, two sons) from Pittsburgh to Green Bay, which was essential because of his duties as pro director.
“Pro is a totally different lifestyle, and it might be a better lifestyle, especially with young kids,” Donahoe said. “Be at home more. It’s still looking at players, and he’s good at what he does.
“It’s good to see he’s in the pro area. He’s getting exposed to all aspects of scouting. I wouldn’t be surprised some day if he was a football operations director or a GM. I think he’s got that kind of ability.”
The 35-year-old Wolf, with his remarkable powers of memory, remains heavily involved in pro as well as college scouting. Highsmith, 52, is on the road a lot scouting college players but also works in pro.
There are three full-time pro scouts under Wojciechowski. They are Chad Brinker, 39, who arrived in 2010; Richmond Williams, 33, a college scout since ’08 who moved to pro this year, and newcomer Luke Benuska, 24.
An AFC personnel director offered unsolicited praise of Brinker as an up-and-comer in a conversation last year.
“He’s a sharp guy who knows what’s going on and has a feel for the pro side, definitely,” an NFC executive in personnel said Friday of Brinker. “But he’s one of those guys that tries too hard to let everybody know what he can do.”
Like most teams, the Packers use color codes to rate every player in the NFL and those recently released. Each of their scouts is assigned a number of teams as their responsibility.
Among Wojciechowski’s many duties are scouting/advancing upcoming opponents, monitoring the daily waiver wire, establishing an emergency board at each position and setting up tryouts.
“You’ve got to be an expert on the league,” one NFC executive said. “The lifeblood is the draft, but what will get you over the top is pro personnel.”
College scouts usually don’t live in their team’s city. From mid-August through mid-December, they travel from campus to campus watching tape and practice by day and writing reports at night. That’s followed by about five weeks of travel in March spent timing and evaluating prospects at pro days.
As pro director, Wojciechowski will spend each day in the office at 1265 Lombardi Avenue. Besides NFL, he’ll watch CFL and Arena Football League tape.
“It’s an adjustment for him because the college guys are their own bosses out there,” said one scout. “This gives him an opportunity to be more well-rounded when opportunities come his way. To see the league, to know what’s playing in the league.
“When you’re on the road you don’t know (bleep) but the road. When you’re in the office, now you get a full grasp of all the things that go on day-to-day.”
According to one source, Thompson has been open-minded to Wojciechowski’s ideas when it comes to alterations in the Packers’ system of pro scouting.
“It’s going to take him a while to get to know the league,” said an NFC executive. “Another huge part of it is your relationships in the agent community and with other league front-office personnel in terms of trades.
“It’s not that hard to evaluate talent but the relationship part of it, the dealing with the agents, that’s going to take a little time. It’s not too bad a transition. It’s just going to take time to get your contacts and get your groove and sit in an office watching tape.”
As far as Wojciechowski’s influence, well, this is Thompson’s show. He and his pro scouts work closely with Wolf, for example, on players across the league. In the end, four or five scouts might suggest one course of action but Thompson can and often does pull rank and veto the move.
“His will be less of an impact because Ted has worked pro and college personnel,” said one scout who has worked with Thompson. “Guys like that put less of an emphasis on the pro guy. Even if he’s the GM they still think they’re the pro guy and the college director. You may have the title but you don’t necessarily get all the responsibilities that normally go with it.”
What do these pro personnel men get paid in Green Bay? A long-time NFL personnel executive estimated Wojciechowski would be about $200,000, Brinker between $85,000 and $105,000 and Benuska about $50,000.
Another executive with years of interacting with the Packers saw their pro decision-making like this: “Eliot does everything pro with Ted. Two people have Ted’s ear: Eliot and Brian (Gutekunst).”
Malaspina, 46, became the second oldest of the seven-member staff of college scouts that includes Sam Seale, 55, West; Charlie Peprah, 34, National combine designee; Alonzo Dotson, 32, Midwest; Mike Owen, 30, Northeast; Joe Hueber, 27, Midwest, and Charles Walls, 27, Southwest.
Unlike Wojciechowski, Malaspina and Thompson are fast friends who go back almost 20 years to Seattle, when Thompson ran the personnel department under coach Mike Holmgren and Malaspina worked for him scouting the Northeast and Southeast.
After Thompson departed for Green Bay in 2005, Malaspina was fired by Seahawks GM Tim Ruskell. Scot McCloughan, the 49ers GM at the time and a former associate of Thompson’s in Green Bay and Seattle, hired Malaspina to scout the Southeast.
When the 49ers fired McCloughan in 2010 another of Thompson’s pals, Trent Baalke took over as GM and retained Malaspina, eventually promoting him. From 2013-’16, Malaspina served as the director of college scouting in San Francisco.
Baalke was fired in January and Malaspina was out in February. Within days, Thompson hired Malaspina and not Baalke, who friends said is now living in northern Wisconsin and out of football.
“He hangs with Ted,” said an NFL executive who has known Malaspina for years. “They’ve developed a friendship over the years. He and Gutekunst are tight, too.
“He’s a know-it-all. He’s got a high opinion of his ability to scout. I don’t think he’s a very good scout. He’s an average scout.”
It isn’t unusual for general managers to arrange their fall travel schedules so they scout colleges on the same days. Malaspina and Gutekunst were together so much, one of their peers started referring to them as the “backpack mafia.”
“Every spring they were at the same pro days,” the executive said. “I’m not a big fan. I like scouts that don’t travel in packs. The guys who are really good, they don’t travel in packs. I tried to hire those guys.”
During training camp, Malaspina could be seen walking around Nitschke Field like he owned the place.
“Like he’s a GM, huh?” said another scout who has been around Malaspina,
Said another veteran NFL executive: “He thinks he’s smarter than he is. Got some arrogance to him. If you can break through the façade he puts on he’s actually a nice person. I’ve known him for 15 years. He doesn’t act that way toward me.”
Added another seasoned NFL personnel man who has worked with Malaspina: “On the positive side, he’s passionate about his work and he’s familiar with a number of areas and schools throughout the country. On the negative side, he’s got a little arrogance to him. Some guys will be turned off by him, even guys that work with him.”
So that’s a peek behind the curtain at Fortress Green Bay and the domain directed by Ted Thompson.
Story posted here https://www.bobmcginnfootball.com/?p=993
