Behind the Green and Gold: Inside the Packers’ Draft Room (Hour 2)

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Coming to Northeast Wisconsin live from the Civic Media Studios, this is Mino and the Mayor.

Here are your hosts John Minow

and Jim Smith.

Hey, thank you very much Welcome back on the mayor coming to you on a beautiful Wednesday morning out there in Green Bay Alton and Oshkosh 54 Green Bay 61 in Alton 57 in Oshkosh Partly cloudy possible showers today high in the low 70s.

It is dance like a chicken day.

It is buttermilk biscuit day Todd you would know this show I don't think Jim ever listened to it, but I used to listen to it all right the Butternut

Biscuit show Garrison Keeler.

Oh, no butternut.

What was the name

of it?

It was the brought to you by so-and-so

brought to

you by

yes, Prairie Home Companion.

Yes.

Remember that Grayson Keeler?

Oh, yeah.

Things work out for him.

Not great.

Some things.

I used to listen to that.

Yes.

It was a public radio.

Yeah.

I did.

I really enjoyed it.

He was here a couple of times, wasn't he?

I

don't know.

There was a bizarre movie made about that about when they were closing down when it was shut because it was right downtown Minneapolis or St.

Paul, I think in an old church or auditorium.

or something.

And, um, but it was just, it was kind of cool.

It was, you know, the small town stories they used to tell and things like that.

I thought that was, that was really neat.

Nice radio, like a radio theater kind of thing.

Yeah.

I love that stuff.

It was the perfect thing to listen to.

I remember one time I hit

coming back from

a, well, it was on, I don't know who was this coming back from Chicago after a Packer game type thing.

And you got that long day and you're listening.

It was like one of those cool things to listen to for like about two hours.

You know, that gets you from like, you know,

Kenosha to right wherever back here.

I love when you can find those kinds of things Got another thing here a new coffee and juice concept Johnny's Java and juice from Michael.

Thank you Michael.

That's good one.

I like

that work

I like that a lot.

I don't think they have a liquor license

I'm not I'm not into that anymore.

Oh, I'm not into that.

All

right.

I just

not into that anymore

help with the marketing I am

coming up with so many great I am coming up with so many good shakes.

You can't even believe it.

I mean you

Can't believe how many good shakes I'm coming up with

these days.

Yeah, that sample that you were bringing in yesterday.

I'm

gonna do that

today.

You get that?

Did you get any of that Todd?

Cause I didn't

know, you know, why

don't you know, you didn't.

I agree.

You know why?

Why is that?

I'll be honest with you.

I don't mean to, my blender is so gross.

I threw it out.

Oh my gosh.

Okay.

Let's just.

That

is cool.

How you let something like that, I think I'd like to see the rest of this.

I wouldn't want to see

the rest of this house, but your blender

was not washed for weeks and just got so corroded that you couldn't even use it to get it thrown out.

You know, I would, it'd be,

mm.

All it takes is, you know, rinse that thing out.

Hot water.

Little Dawn dish soap in there.

I tried that.

No, you, no way.

He

tried it, but that was after weeks of ignoring it.

So that is too late.

You got to get the chisel out.

I tried chiseling it

out.

I did.

You know who we should pray to?

St.

Julie, his wife.

That's who we should be praying to.

Yeah, the lost souls.

Yeah, wow.

So it's a funny thing, so I think Lyra McCarrison, how many people think we're all the great things Mino does are people he's going to eventually go straight to heaven?

How many people think Julie's going straight to satehood?

Yeah, right.

They got the one-way ticket.

so did you go buy one not yet okay they're not that expensive but still they're they're not disposable either i mean you know it's not because that's just land that's gonna get land filled

you know okay so you know what you know what the bad part is i buy one of those little ninjas

yeah those are they don't make much but you know that's the problem yeah

so if you okay

so that's just that's like these

This coffee that we drink in those cure ads just for individuals, right?

That's exactly

exactly 100% correct.

Yeah, so the problem is think about this

I got

one you got to reuse that like three or four times more than the big ones Yep, so that's what it's like you clean it after every single little cup of yes Nobody does that so anyway, that's why

you wash out Glasses after using

I use I use all plastic

Okay, that's you're not much for the environment.

Are you

I'm 100% for the environment What?

Why I'm

a big environment was plastic

that you wash you don't use plastic disposable When you're telling me when you say you use plastic glasses in your house, which is weird.

I'm nobody does that red solo cups Those red cups that was you

use of course doesn't everybody I'll do a quick

pic Nick the only yeah, I only use it

for like a summer kind of thing or whatever.

What

season is

it?

You come

over to my place, lemonade at the band concert.

I would probably, I would look at that.

But not ever in the house.

Do you use plastic, like silverware?

No, it's not silver because it's plastic.

You

tinsel?

Plasticware?

Yes.

Do you reuse them?

Sometimes.

Because sometimes they don't get that much on them.

Do you rinse them off?

Yeah.

Or wipe them off.

I use paper plates and I use paper bowls.

Really?

Yeah, it's all recyclable.

Yeah.

It's cheaper to bike.

Why don't you just go to the, uh, Unity Hospice, the resale store and buy four plates and four cups and four glasses.

I

hate washing anything.

Then they're laying around and they're doing whatever.

Yeah.

To the dishwasher?

Yeah.

Man.

Takes forever though and it's loud and it's

like.

Put it on when you go to bed.

Yeah.

So,

I mean, what's wrong with that?

Not hurting anybody, but

I think you are the I don't say the only one because then you'll do a poll Less than 5% of the people use plastic in their house

disagree

Todd,

okay.

You don't want to do a poll.

That's why you don't want to lose What

what were the numbers that

you gave Jim?

I think less than 5% of people use plastic where plastic cups plat paper dishes Regularly in their home.

I think 95% of the people use you know

Stuff that every not

people who part of the time live alone.

Okay.

I'm like half and half or whatever.

So tonight in this half That's when I do it.

No, I don't think I would totally have more than once a day in your house You got to use glass and and and

I would do that I would use glass and normal

type things I

would be happy

to use

that if somebody else was washing the stuff.

Oh So that's where it is.

Yeah, see I because I don't

want I'm environmentalist.

I don't want to have to use up so much water

I, yeah.

I think 95% maybe just a little high and I'll say why.

Cause like last night, like I had some, some Mexican like tacos, right?

I just grabbed a paper plate.

It was just easier for that.

Absolutely.

But I don't do that all the time.

I have plates and dinnerware and all that kind of stuff that I use, you know, most of the time, but occasionally I'll use.

So I would say a good bet would be at least 75 to 80% of people typically use

Actual plates and dinnerware silverware in general if

they're having a regular meal But if somebody's just great, you know, you make yourself you make yourself like when I

make a butter and bologna

chili

chili Just meatloaf sandwiches I had last night.

No glass cloth napkin silverware.

What yeah, that's a that's a little for me.

I

would way

over the people Who does the dishes?

It goes in the dishwasher and

see that's what I mean

that we wash it.

Yeah, we run it at night.

Just being honest We have a whole drawer of napkins that paper stuff.

It's your fingers

napkins

now every day

Yeah, you so you wash napkins in the dishwasher.

I mean in the

laundry thing.

Yeah goes down laundry shoot.

Yeah, just

yeah Why why not just use paper

paper towel?

I cuz I think sometimes it sticks to your finger

You know,

well, if you're eating ribs or something, maybe I

see that

and

it's not as wow

Paper capital of the world where paper towels are made and Jim's okay if you guys lose your jobs because he's using linens I have

paper poles there to clean stuff up, but Okay, I don't know I I think a lot of people use maybe not people use linens as much, but we just we just always have that and they're not that expensive and

I don't know if we have a lot of those.

I don't.

I guess it's just so weird if there's Jim over here, right?

Cloth napkins and dinnerware.

John's over here eating, you know, out of a dirty blender.

And then I'm kind of in the middle.

I'm like the reasonable.

You are, you are, you are.

Yeah.

But yeah,

I'll just.

Yeah, I would not switch.

You see, I would not.

Here's what I would not switch.

I would not like change the paper because of the time or because of the meal.

I would just always use.

No, glass.

All right, well, I guess.

I just, in glass cups, yeah.

But then

you get them laying around, they're on the counter, they're in the sink, they're in the yada, yada, yada.

I love using something and throwing it right in the thing.

Does it get thrown out?

That's the next question.

If I went up there right now, what would that place look like?

Good.

What would it smell like?

Give me a minute.

My little comes back tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm just saying

oh, we just got a text Mike says Todd is definitely the reasonable one.

Thank you

Mike right in the middle.

Yeah Happy birthday.

Oh first of all, you know what else is saying this something we got to talk about is receptionist today.

Yes

receptionist day again same same as where we're sick the customer service welcome

that can change your

entire Mental oh look in a building in a business by how that receptionist greets you.

Oh,

yeah, I'm

Look, I'm no argument here.

That person at the front desk, absolutely critical.

The best receptionist that I can remember her name was the one at AMS.

Did you go out there to see Wally and those guys?

Not really, to be honest with you.

Everybody knew her.

Always super friendly, always acted like she knew you.

You know, maybe she didn't.

She was great, but receptionist, that's really, really important.

You also

had some nice people at the mayor's

office when you stood up

there.

They were always super friendly.

He had

better be.

Yeah, it was, but.

It's not that hard.

No to be friendly.

It's a smile or to call him by their first name It's that didn't cost anymore, but they got to love their job, too I think I want to go back to these two people that we ran into this weekend that weren't very nice to us I just don't think they were happy there.

I think I do I think it's social security was running out and their spouse said look We got to make an extra 700 bucks a month go work part-time over there Whereas if they want to take somebody that said look, I love technology or I love hardware Those would be great employees.

Yeah, I agree

But I don't think that was the interview question.

It was like, can you, can you work these hours?

So

got texture Bonnie at AMS was great.

Uh-huh.

That is her

name.

She was the best.

And she was there for years.

And, um, wow, that's great that she remembered that.

Who said that?

Sarah.

Sarah.

Thanks for that.

Sarah is unbelievable.

Bonnie was, that's her name.

Uh, my favorite receptionist in

Texas people, national receptionist name, Texas.

Somebody that needs deserves a shout out.

Please do

sex is

a good one receptionist that deserves a shout out.

Yeah, I know a couple that don't deserve a shot.

We

were talking about that, but

yeah Do I know them?

Yeah.

Oh,

yeah You know, I tell you another place where I'm not kidding you guys.

I just I'm thinking no, I want to give a shout out I don't know her name, but you won't believe the the the agent

I just text it.

Yeah.

Yeah, totally agree.

Okay.

You

wouldn't know her, but yeah, yeah, you would never mind.

Okay

You know, who's got a good receptionist?

You're not gonna believe this.

The DMV.

I swear to God, I went

there.

I would go back.

You know what?

Every time

I've gone to, I mean, three times in

five years.

We had to get

that

stamp for you.

It was just super nice.

And she's like, look, how can I help you?

And I'm like, this, I want to get that upgrade.

Oh yeah.

That was, I did that during COVID, so I was long

time ago.

Oh,

maybe I've

got

it.

But that's been.

15 years in the making.

It's about time.

We have to put that star on your license.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I went there and they were just super, I was like, this is awesome.

I was expecting, you know, you set your clock to the DMV.

It's like, I'm gonna be here for three hours.

And so I don't know who it was, but I don't know if she's still there, but she was great.

Yeah.

So I wanna, look, I know nobody likes the DMV.

I love them.

I thought they were great.

I think they'd get a bad rap.

They did get a bad rap.

That's what I've got.

Yeah.

I gotta ask a quick question.

So when I go to a restaurant,

Okay.

I never drink the water.

You know, I don't like regular water.

Right.

I can't drink.

It's bizarre.

I'm the only person that doesn't like water.

Okay.

But I love it flavored.

Yep.

So could I walk into a restaurant?

Because instead of spending that extra few bucks for that Diet Coke or whatever, can I bring in like my little tang flavored things into a restaurant and just drink their water but use my own tang in it?

I would say it depends on the restaurant you went into.

If you went into like

I don't know you can't bring in your own it's like ordering and putting in a shot of whiskey or something I don't know I don't think they'd like that

I don't know but it's not but here's the deal it's not something they sell you know what I mean so it's not like well you sell Tang but I'm gonna bring in my own Tang somebody help us out that runs a restaurant let us know

would you let people do that

yeah

that's a good question I don't know

shout out to receptors give us some names

I'd be too embarrassed to do that but I would

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Beautiful Wednesday morning.

Right now, 54 in Green Bay, 61 in Apton, 57 in Oshkosh.

Forecast partly cloudy.

Possible showers high in the low 70s.

Brewers, as I mentioned in action again today, 11-35 here in WISS.

Brewers taking on the Cleveland Guardians.

Brewers needing to get something going, man.

Shout out two games in a row, three hits again yesterday, and just, just can't get anything going.

But you know what?

We're going to talk.

We're going to switch sports here.

We're going to talk about the NFL draft.

Of course, I know that's long gone, but we want to talk about somebody not on the periphery.

Somebody that was literally in the war room for 21 years during the NFL draft of the Green Bay Packers, former executive assistant to the general manager of the Green Bay Football Packers.

Jeannie Bruett.

Jeannie, it is so great to see you.

How are you?

I'm good, John and Jim.

It's so great to see you both also.

Thanks for hearing.

Thank you.

She got a chance to actually see you guys in action because she was watching from in here.

Oh, and she understands who you both are now.

I mean, she said they're so different than I said.

Yes, but so much alike.

It's so female in the draft room, 21 years.

You know, today is kind of receptionist day, but executive assistant day is like a big day to it.

Ron could have done it without you.

A lot of us couldn't have.

Yeah, we are without you.

Do you, do you miss that?

I mean, that must have been one of the best jobs in Green Bay.

I really miss the people.

I miss the general managers who I was privileged to work for, Ron, the very first one.

And I learned everything about football operations.

I'm a only girl with four brothers.

I love sports, but I never had a clue as to what was involved in football operations and the business of football.

And when I started working for him, he was my

He was my instructor.

He taught me about the waiver transactions.

We had a player personnel handbook that was basically when you had to sign a player, how you had to, what you did with an injured player, how you put a player on PUP, player, you know, all of those things.

There were certain requirements and ways to do it.

And so I basically, you know, he'd come in one morning and he

be, oh, we're gonna do a trade.

We're gonna do a trade.

And for, then we could do trades for past considerations, which, you know, Ron loved that because he was always checking the waiver wire, always ready to trade, ready to improve the team.

And so basically I learned all of that from Ron.

And it, his personality and mine, after maybe even being there all week,

It's something that fit like a glove.

Can you say one thing that

Ron did that got everybody said Ron did something that no one had done before and this was so effective as far as you talk about different management styles.

What Ron would do after a bad game where some position didn't play well.

For the next day, you'd have about four or five guys that played that position for trials.

Wouldn't you, Jeannie?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

It was competition.

And it's a tough business.

I also did the player insurance.

So during training camp, I had to hand out the packets and give a little, you know,

format as far as what was involved in insurance.

But I always spoke to the players and I said, I really understand you are in a challenging career and it's based on your performance.

And I said, but as a person here working and I said, I hope that all of you would find success in your life.

And it was great.

I remember a young man who had come and he was

about four or five on the depth chart, but he just worked hard.

And by about the third year he was up, you know, playing and, and I just told him I was really proud of him for all of his hard work.

But it was, it's great to have the personal interaction with

players.

With that though, it's tough when they get cut too.

You know, I mean,

for that man for you, if you're

like that,

not that you were a motherly figure, but that you really, you know, there's just a lot of.

aggressive men in that

room and you're kind

of one of the more compassionate

and I Ted Thompson he hated roster cut down we hated it and I think maybe even more so than Ron because he was a player too so he understood all of it and oh you just it just tore him up because he always wanted every young man who came through that door to succeed

you know people don't realize though and

Okay, you were so gracious with Ted when you gave me the box to bring up all the veterans and everything like that for so many years But he would only miss one in all those years in all those years all those years There's only been one time when he ever missed coming up and shaking the hands and taking pictures with all the veterans Okay, and it was weak for their final cut down because he was so thorough He would be he would be watching guys face-to-face for the final decisions.

Isn't that true

genie?

So you

With all this insight and knowledge, I bet the press kind of wanted you to be a

source.

He wanted to know who called in.

I had a phone sheet.

And if he was at practice, we had the date, the time they called and who they were.

And so I dealt with the media often.

And many of them became very good friends.

They were really good to deal with, really good people.

And so... Like

national media too, you're

talking about, yeah.

National media too, absolutely.

And so...

He'd take the phone sheet when he'd come back and he'd answer every one of those calls and It was it was it was fun.

I got to know these guys and you know, they would just I don't know they might just say, you know, oh, you know what?

You know what's going on?

Well, I'd say yes, you know, it's Always something going on around here.

I said but you'll you'll have to talk to Ron about that.

Yeah, yeah Well, especially that office when I started

I told you it was a unique situation.

I came in and started helping him before I was actually... Ron Wolf?

Yes, Ron Wolf before I was actually hired.

And I came in and the files needed to be, you know, changed.

And I just went and I said, I know everything's confidential, but do you want me to go ahead and do this?

Yes, go ahead and do it.

But it would only work if I was a confidential person.

Right.

You know, you had to have trust and you had to believe in that person.

Well,

Jeannie,

hang around because we got a lot more to talk about.

Jeannie Brett, former executive assistant to the general manager of the Green Bay Packers.

Ron Wolf from the start, Ted Thompson, and she's going to spill all the secrets of what happened behind closed doors during her entire time with the Green Bay Packers.

Right, Jeannie?

Name and names, dates, the whole thing.

Back after this.

Got something to say?

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Now, back to Mino and the Mayor.

Here's John Mino and Jim Schmidt.

Hey, thank you very much.

Welcome back, Mino and the Mayor, and a beautiful Wednesday morning, 97.9 FM WGBW 98.396.5 FM W-I-S-S.

And of course, the Civic Media App, along with 1100 AM and 1590 AM.

And Todd has a comment he'd like to make.

Well, this is kind of interesting, because we've had Genie on the show before, right?

We had her on the phone.

and all that good stuff.

And a couple of weeks ago, our intern here, Ryan's like, hey, I just, I ran into somebody at work.

And so he was working at his job and this very nice couple walk in and they started up a conversation and it turns out to be Jeannie.

And through him, gets her booked on the show.

There you go.

Isn't that nice.

Yeah, thanks, Ryan.

He's a great young man.

Yeah, we

agree.

Isn't that nice you're nice to people and help with that can lead

to

oh absolutely I know if you're listening on the way in we're to its national receptionist state and we're talking about that At the attitude of that receptionist can change your entire outlook from the time you got it your car or whatever and why and you're you know I'm looking for it and it can change

so drastically one way or the other from the way you're greeted.

Isn't that true?

And I know you guys, I remember Linda back in the days and you know, somebody was always there with a big smile.

That was important for you guys with the Green Bay Packers,

wasn't it?

And that's where I started with the Packers.

I

know.

Yeah, on the switchboard and I loved it.

I loved the, I'll never forget one day that the training camp was canceled because of rain.

And the people started flooding in the door.

There are about 40 people just pouring in.

And I'm trying to answer the phone and trying to deal with them.

And Carol Edwin, who was in the ticket office, and she had started there too.

So she comes out, she said, Jeannie, I'll help you.

So I just said, people, I want to help all of you.

Carol's here to help.

If you just get in line one at a time and our patient will be sure and help you with whatever question you have.

And we just, you know, one at a time or we just an answer.

the phone and I looked over and and John with the quarter he became the quarterback coach for Tampa that Jerry what was his name oh

I don't know I'm trying

he was the he was the first he started out in

John Gruden and quality control.

So he's in the back there.

He used to ride his bike to work.

I remember that.

And he's standing there and I turned around, finding, John, can I help you?

No, no, no, just wait.

So after maybe 20, 25 minutes, everybody was, and he comes over and he says, that was incredible.

So that's, I know, they work hard, but it's really important.

Same way on the phone, it's really important to have good.

First impression.

Oh my gosh, yes.

Well, let's

talk draft while you were in the

war room for so many years.

Give us

a little behind the scenes.

What's that like?

Well, I tell you with Ron, and it was before we had a wonderful email and all the wonderful systems, we were phone connected.

And it was slow.

and it was just cumbersome.

And for Ron, I would answer the phones and send them into the key guys in the draft room.

There are four guys that would answer the phone to help in order to talk trade or whatever.

Ron was the final say

on what

they were going to do.

But I also had to...

type up the trade agreement when it's when it's takes place.

So here he comes out, we're ready for a pick.

And he comes out, he's all excited and he says, we're going to do a trade, we're going to do a trade.

I said, okay, okay.

So he Green Bay Packers trade such and such.

And the team that we're trading, you will put Cleveland Browns trade.

So I'm typing away and then I'm looking at that cursor and it's just

moving so slowly, I don't know whether I've made a mistake or whether what's going on.

And Ron was like a kid in a candy shop on draft day.

He loved it.

And that really helped to take the pressure off.

And he would invite the executive board, whoever wanted to come in, could just sit and watch.

Now when Ted came along, Ted was not quite as comfortable with that.

He was much more serious.

When Ted came on, I kept, it was called the draft pick sheet.

And by now we've got all the good computer things and things can move much quicker and you do it email.

But you had all the numbers of the players, you had the draft around and the position.

And so when there was a trade by anybody, I had to change that in the draft pick sheet, print off about 14 copies and get them into the draft room.

I sat in the office right outside the draft door.

I forgot where we were on the clock at one point in time, so I walk in the draft room and Ted's at our draft board, and I'm ready to pass the sheets out, and Ted looks at me with that stare, that look that Ted happened to have, and he says, Gene, now is not a good time, because we were on the clock.

So I quietly walked out and waited and watched on the television when they were done and I went back in and John Dorsey was there and you know, and I'm handing around Don't worry about it.

Gene.

Don't worry about it.

You know, it's I said I understand I just came in at the wrong time

Wow was that?

You see with Ron it was not not relax isn't the right word, but he enjoyed

yeah, that's where

he enjoyed that was his Super Bowl is that wasn't it

though, Janie?

But I'm just thinking like someone looked at Ted was it

It must be high stress.

Is it kind of like that money ball, that baseball thing where you have one guy in one line, one guy in the other line trading back and forth?

Well, you have Danny Mock was always in the draft room with the headset.

We had two reps at New York City.

No.

Al Tremble.

Well, after Al, after Al, it was Brian Nearing and Chris Kirby.

Brian from equipment and Chris from, you know, video.

And so he was always connected.

So he knew exactly what was called.

And so that in the room, they knew that exactly what was called.

And it is high pressure and especially me with trades.

And then I would call a team we traded.

Do you want, I can do the trade agreement papers if you want to.

Cause when it's all done a Monday morning, you've got to FedEx those hard copies to the teams and get those out.

And I say it can be a flurry of activity in a matter of maybe one hour.

And after that, maybe sit for a while.

Was there any, do you remember any big arguments, discussions or with Ron and Ted, two guys who they carry the big stick, wasn't there much pushback from agents and, or not agents, excuse me, from coaches and scouts

and things like that.

When you read the Packerway, Ron's first book, he had a way of

They went through all of that three weeks before the draft.

Our scouts come back and they have their meetings and set up the board and the picks.

They bring in the coaches for whatever position, sit and talk, watch film.

They give their input on who they feel that would be the right one.

So when you get to draft day, and Ron always said, I don't like it called the war room because we don't have a war.

He said, there's other people that work differently and they do.

No, because they're so prepared and everyone has gone through and discussed it that when it comes to that day and whoever's in that room then with the scouts, they might just say, well, you know, what do you think or whatever?

But Ted and Ron, then they had the final.

final say, because they have their number one player up on the board.

If that gets picked, they go to the next guy.

I mean,

that is legit.

I mean, they would just take one off the line, and there's the guy that they, and they stay true.

Now, when Aaron Rodgers kept, it kept falling.

And it's interesting because Aaron was our number one guy.

Not the one who was picked, number one.

They felt all along that Aaron Rodgers was the better quarterback.

Okay, on the

entire draft board

was Aaron Rodgers or number one

player.

I never

knew

that.

Why?

Okay, but if that's the case.

I never knew that.

were they confident he was going to be around?

Tell them why they didn't pick him when they, okay.

Well, because they're picking 23rd.

We're picking 23rd, so they had to wait.

And he was 50-50 in

Las Vegas, if he was going to be the number one player taken, or Alex Smith in the entire draft.

So I

mean, sir Sanders, his drop, okay, whatever, whatever.

But Aaron Rodgers was...

Consider the number one pick in the entire draft that must have been exciting when

it was because when I was taking the draft pick sheet in With other teams are trying and they're going and I remember John Dorsey looking at me.

He's still there.

He's still there.

I

mean

They were so excited.

And, you know, that's, but that's, that's how it

works.

How did you like making some of those, did you do the arrangements then after the, hey, welcome to Green Bay Packers?

Would you be that person that

talked to them?

No, no, because they, you know, they call and they've got a whole team of people, you know, because, you know, I had enough to do that day.

I'm glad I didn't have to do

any

more of that.

But I would get to see them when they'd come in, you know, for, for, and bring them in for the big visit and the media.

So I'm sure people have asked, but 21 years, that's

a long time.

I mean,

it just is to do something.

Best memory highlight.

I mean, you've dealt with so many great people.

And now you

speak very, very highly of Ron Wolf.

I'm sure he's here.

Yeah,

absolutely.

Maybe it was a day

that gave you that ring you got on your hand.

Well, I've got two of them.

I've got two of them.

It's such a privilege.

And we never talk about the third Super Bowl that we lost.

We just don't talk about it.

Neither do

we.

No, it's just a sad thing.

But Coach Holmgren was a storyteller.

He'd come in, and if Ron was on the phone, he'd

lean back against the credenza and he'd start telling me stories about coach Holmgren.

Yeah, about 49ers.

Boy, he didn't show that side very often.

Oh, I was fortunate.

I always say I was fortunate.

I worked for the GM and these were the early years, but even the latter, he always treated me with such respect.

And Mike Sherman was a very good man and a very good coach.

And, you know, it just

I could never see one man doing two jobs, never.

It just is impossible.

But when he left, it was, oh, I'm thinking about the time that I didn't know who I was gonna be working for when I retired.

This is the thing about football.

They never tell me, I'd find out the last minute.

And you're hearing, they're interviewing people.

And so I come in on a Monday morning,

And here on my desk is an itinerary.

Mark Hatley meets with coaching staff at nine o'clock.

Mark Hatley meets with Jeannie Brouette.

And tell everybody who Mark Hatley

was.

Mark Hatley was with the Chicago Bears.

And Mike Sherman hired him as the vice president of football operations who would be my boss.

And I go, oh, I guess I'm not fired.

I guess they still want me to stay and he's my boss.

I mean, you hate to say it, but professional sports like that, it truly is day to day.

Oh, it really is.

And then when Ted was going to come and I thought, well, you know, Autumn worked for Ted when I was working for Ron.

And I so

All of us, I get a call from Bob Harlan.

Gene, Ted's going to be coming in tomorrow morning.

And I just want to make sure you get his office ready and everything's straightened up.

And I said, well, good.

So I found out that way.

Oh, I guess I'm still working here.

Isn't that something?

Yeah.

Management-wise, Genie.

And Jim is huge into this.

He teaches classes on everything, management style and different things.

What did you take away from all the different?

And I will say this, you talked about the Mike Sherman who did things a little bit differently.

You still take away something from everybody.

In summary, with all these strong personalities

that

you dealt with, what did you take away about a great management style?

Yes, I would say number one, because Ron was a scout, I think he had a fifth sense about a person's characteristics.

He could see people.

And I think a great manager a great great manager sees the qualities and people that knows they know that it will work And they don't put up with failure So they're not gonna hire someone that they know would fail Number two Ron always when he know he let me do my job.

He gave me that freedom

to do it within the style I had.

Another thing was he listened.

He listened to my feedback.

He listened to

what

I felt.

If I saw situations that I thought, you know, Ron, you know, think about this.

Or, you know, he wanted to do things in a different way.

And I said, well, just think about this.

You know, you want to, he was like a bull in a china shop sometimes.

And I think I just, well,

at his

induction,

He talked about me and he said she was my sounding board.

I felt that that was really very trustworthy a lot about you know

that former executive assistant to the general manager agreement Packers Ron Wolf and everybody back of this

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We got Jeannie Brouette here, former executive assistant to Ron Wolf and Ted Thompson.

We're just telling some stories behind the scenes a little bit, but just about the personalities of the people.

I always find that, because you know, a guy can be in his role when he's on camera and everything.

I'm always so much more interested in the real person, because anybody can fake it, sort of.

But I love hearing stories where they're good people behind the scenes.

Yeah.

I have a great story about Ted Thompson.

We call it the Farve, the Summer of Farve with all of the, you know, the...

He wanted to play, he wasn't gonna play, he was gonna go play here, go play there, and finally the commissioner sent him back to Green Bay.

But during that training camp, my mailbox was stuffed with letters.

The phone was ringing off the hook.

They even set up a fan mail line for people

to

call and complain or say, good job, Ted, or whatever.

So I would open the letters.

I had this format.

I had started with Ron Wolf.

I had certain forms and I would type up a letter on the letterhead and get it on Ron or Ted's desk.

They'd read it and if anything wanted to be changed, they'd cross it out or they'd sign it if it was good.

Well, I was walking in every day with a stack of mail and I had one pile that had a postie note, Ted, please read these because they were

for the decision that the organization was making and good letters.

The next pile, they weren't exactly for it, but it was well written.

And so about the third day, I'm walking him with a pile of letters and I set it down and I turn around and Ted says, Gene, just a minute.

He said, are those all the letters?

And I said, no, Ted, they're not.

And those you're not gonna see, they're in the shredder.

You did that, huh?

I mean, just threw him away.

But I remember Mark Murphy coming down too and saying, how's Ted doing?

How's Ted doing?

And I said, Mark, Ted is steady as she goes.

He is just, he's a steady man.

He's just gonna take things one at a time.

Never upset, never just, never getting his people upset.

And that's how Ted was, just hardworking, steady as she goes.

Well, he was a

hard worker.

He was.

Well, that

was his.

That's all he

did, right?

Did he golf?

Did he fish?

No, I think that was just.

It was football, it was his life.

He

was single too, right?

Did

he just put his whole life in the football?

I just thought that was like crazy.

Which is great.

I gotta believe with that position and you know, community owned that people may say things that, you know, and did they, that hurt a little bit,

you know, and you

said they,

Ted, you didn't show those two, did