Bob Harlan Deserves Place on This Packers Mount Rushmore

When the Green Bay Packers released their legacy series about the full history of the team in honor of their 100th season, there was one line that stood out above all the rest.

Ron Wolf looked into the camera and said, “We breathed breath back into the crown jewel of the National Football League, the Green Bay Packers.”

There was a litany of men who came through Green Bay, Wisconsin, to turn what had become a dormant franchise back into the national power it has been essentially since 1992.

One of the men who was a key figure in that renaissance, Bob Harlan, passed away on Thursday. The impact he made cannot be understated, which begged this question: Who would belong on the Mount Rushmore of Green Bay’s renaissance of the 1990s?

Of course, with only four figures available, multiple deserving candidates were left off, but we will lead this list with the leading man.

Bob Harlan

The phrase “the structure” has been used ad nauseam since Mark Murphy changed it following Brian Gutekunst’s promotion to general manager in 2018. That’s because the leadership structure established by Bob Harlan lasted for more than a quarter-century.

Harlan was Packers president and CEO from 1989 until 2008. He saw his team play in two Super Bowls and win one. He was the steward who helped bring multiple key figures to Green Bay, with perhaps none more important than general manager Ron Wolf.

When Harlan hired Wolf in November 1991, he made a significant change to the organization. Wolf was to oversee all football operations and have the final call on all football matters, including the hiring and firing of the team’s head coach.

Former Packers president Bob Harlan holds an umbrella for he and Deanna Favre as Brett Favre's number is revealed in 2015. — Former Packers president Bob Harlan holds an umbrella for he and Deanna Favre as Brett Favre's number is revealed on the Lambeau Field facade in 2015. | Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

The domino effect took place from there, as Wolf found the right quarterback and hired the right coach to put it all together to restore the Packers back to a winner.

When the Packers beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI on Jan. 26, 1997, it had been 29 years since the Packers had played for the NFL championship.

Between Vince Lombardi’s retirement after Super Bowl II in 1967 and the hiring of Mike Holmgren in 1992, the Packers had just five winning seasons. They played in the playoffs twice but never found their way back to championship glory.

The team had recycled through former Lombardi greats like Forrest Gregg and Bart Starr, but none of those men could recapture the magic that was so prevalent as Lombardi built Green Bay into a city now known as Titletown.

From the time Harlan took over in 1989, winning and making the postseason became almost routine.

Harlan’s Packers missed the playoffs just five times between 1989 and 2007. They were consistently in contention, and built a team in the mid-1990s that dethroned the San Francisco 49ers in 1995 before conquering the rest of the NFL world in 1996 with the team’s 12th NFL championship, a 35-21 win over the Patriots.

Of course, as team president – and perhaps Harlan would like it this way – his biggest accomplishments came off the football field.

That’s not to say Harlan did not care about football. He made it a mission that the on-field product would always be Green Bay’s top priority. He just hired football people and let them do their jobs.

His biggest accomplishment was the renovation of Lambeau Field, which began in 2000 and was completed in 2003.

The 365-days-a-year operation that is Lambeau Field would not exist without Harlan’s vision, and it’s a big reason the Packers are still in Green Bay. In a world that values bigger and better all the time, Harlan kept his team in the smallest city in professional sports.

That is an impact that cannot be understated and is why he’s a worthy selection of this list.

Ron Wolf

Of course, if you’re going to put Bob Harlan on this list and praise him for deferring the football side of things to the general manager, he had better have picked the right man for that job.

As it turns out, he did. Ron Wolf is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and his work with the Packers is the biggest reason why.

Wolf joined the team late in 1991 and began scoping out the roster for potential upgrades before turning his eye to the biggest prize and the biggest acquisition of his tenure.

Ron Wolf is introduced at the 2015 Hall of Fame game at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Quarterback Brett Favre.

Remember how jarring it was when the Packers traded two first-round picks to acquire Micah Parsons in August? Parsons was a proven player. The world knew how great he was before the Packers acquired him.

Favre? He’d thrown four passes in his career and two interceptions. He was far from proven, but Wolf had conviction. He traded a first-round pick to the Falcons to acquire the mercurial quarterback, who turned into arguably the greatest player in the history of the franchise.

That was just the beginning of Wolf’s tenure. As free agency began in the NFL, that was supposed to be a death sentence for the Packers. There was no way the team could compete with the bigger markets, such as the Dallas Cowboys or New York Giants, for great players set to hit the open market.

All Wolf did in free agency’s first true run was sign arguably the greatest defensive player ever. Reggie White left Philadelphia to follow the advice from God, or Mike Holmgren, to play in Green Bay.

Favre was that catalyst on offense and White was the star on defense that helped lead Green Bay to their first championship since the Vince Lombardi era.

Wolf’s fingerprints are all over the league. One of his disciples, Brian Gutekunst, runs things in Green Bay. He replaced another Wolf disciple, Ted Thompson, who built the team’s 2010 championship team.

John Schneider and Wolf’s son, Eliot, were the top executives for this year’s Super Bowl teams. John Dorsey and Reggie McKenzie parlayed successful tenures in Green Bay into top jobs with other organizations.

All of those men were hired by Wolf while he was in Green Bay. A true “dream team” of executives.

Mike Holmgren

Ron Wolf made two big acquisitions in Green Bay on the player personnel side with Brett Favre and Reggie White.

Wolf tried to hire Bill Parcells to take Green Bay’s job, but Parcells declined for health reasons. Perhaps Parcells would have won in Green Bay, but as history will show, the man Wolf had to settle for ended up being a home run hire.

Mike Holmgren was the offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers under Bill Walsh and was as coveted a coaching candidate as any during his cycle. Holmgren chose Green Bay and became the instrumental figure in developing the most important player at the most important position on the team.

Green Bay Packers coach Mike Holmgren is carried by his players after the Packers won Super Bowl XXXI over the New England. | Rick Wood / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Favre may have driven Holmgren nuts, as Holmgren was used to seeing his offense run by Joe Montana and Steve Young. Favre, of course, was more of a gunslinger than a technician like the 49ers’ legendary passers.

Holmgren and Favre found their way to work together, and the Packers took off from there. Holmgren never had a losing season during his tenure, which spanned from 1992 to 1998.

Favre won three straight MVP awards under the tutelage of Holmgren and, of course, they won the Super Bowl together with a 35-21 win over the Patriots, who were coached by Parcells.

It’s hard not to wonder if Favre and Holmgren could have won more together had Holmgren not left for Seattle after the 1998 season.

Arguably Holmgren’s greatest accomplishment came, like Wolf, in who he hired. Dick Jauron, Ray Rhodes, Andy Reid, Steve Mariucci and Jon Gruden were part of Holmgren’s staff. They all became head coaches, with Gruden and Reid winning Super Bowls.

Holmgren is not in the Hall of Fame but deserves a gold jacket.

Brett Favre

When talking about greatest players in the history of the Packers, you can probably narrow it down to three names.

Aaron Rodgers, Bart Starr and Brett Favre.

In terms of impact on the franchise? There is no player who comes close to Favre.

Favre was not a popular acquisition at the time Wolf acquired him for a first-round pick. The Packers had Don Majikowski, who in 1989 led the NFL in passing and finished second in NFL MVP voting.

Of course, everyone knows the story by now. On Sept. 20, 1992, the Packers’ fortunes changed forever when Favre entered a Week 3 game against the Bengals after Majkowski injured an ankle. The little-known quarterback with a rocket arm hit Kitrick Taylor in the corner of the Lambeau Field end zone to give the Packers a thrilling 24-23 win.

Brett Favre celebrates after the Green Bay Packers' 24-23 victory over Cincinnati on Sept. 20, 1992. | Green Bay Press-Gazette

There were some rocky moments, but Favre grew into the quarterback that Wolf believed him to be thanks to the tutelage of Holmgren. By 1995, Favre was the best quarterback in football, and won his first of three consecutive MVP awards.

Favre won Super Bowl XXXI and likely would have won MVP honors in Super Bowl XXXII had he been able to complete a late comeback.

Favre had just one losing season in Green Bay, a 4-12 campaign in 2005. Otherwise, the Packers finished at .500 or better for the duration of Favre’s tenure as the starting quarterback. Favre’s first three seasons as the team’s starting quarterback gave it more winning seasons than it had between 1968 and 1989.

When Favre was traded to the Jets following the 2007 season, he owned every major passing record. In 2009, he became the first quarterback to beat all 32 NFL teams.

Another piece of Favre’s legacy was the stability he brought to the franchise. Favre is the face of toughness across the NFL. The ultimate ironman in a sport that is defined by modern-day gladiators.

Whether he was hurt, sick or grieving, Favre was ready to step under center when the Packers had a game.

His consecutive-starts streak extended from 1992 all the way until 2010 when he was wrapping up his NFL career with the Vikings. In between, Favre started 297 consecutive regular-season games; 321 if you include the playoffs. Of all the records across football, that one is unlikely to ever be broken.

No Reggie White?

Of course, with this conversation, there was bound to be someone missing from this list, and the answer to that question is the one who was likely the best player in NFL history at his position.

Brett Favre was a great player but is not considered the greatest quarterback of all time. The same is true for Ron Wolf and Mike Holmgren, who are not considered the best in their roles.

Reggie White, on the other hand, is in that conversation as the greatest defensive player to ever put on a helmet.

So how is he not on this list?

Well, the answer is that these lists are meant to be exclusive. The other reality is that White likely would not have signed with the Packers had the other three men are not in place. If Harlan did not hire Wolf, the Packers might still be a mess. If Wolf did not hire Holmgren, Favre might not have developed into a Hall of Famer.

If Favre was not as good as he was, would White have come away as impressed as he was following the Packers’ victory over the Eagles in 1992?

The domino effect is undeniable. If this were a question about who were the greatest players to ever play in Green Bay, White unquestionably would make this list.

It isn’t, though. The question is about impact, and while White was certainly impactful, he was more of a final piece of the puzzle than a building block.

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