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After a Green Bay Packers fan wished “the worst in your twilight years” for Mark Murphy, the team’s president and CEO of almost two decades, Murphy responded by saying he’d be around for only 18 more months.
“Thanks for sharing your opinion,” Murphy wrote February 3 in “Murphy Takes 5,” a monthly Q&A column on the team’s website. “I also appreciate the 11 other emails you’ve recently sent with similar suggestions. I get your point. You will be pleased to know that I am required to retire in July 2025 under our bylaws.”
The Packers’ bylaws state that the mandatory retirement age for a board member is 70. Murphy will turn 70 on July 13, 2025.
As early as 2022, the team’s executive committee had “started to make plans for the process and timeline to find my successor,” Murphy told USA Today.
In February 2023, The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman reported that Ed Policy, who is currently the team’s chief operating officer, would “likely” be Murphy’s successor.
GettyMark Murphy (left) with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell
Mark Murphy Was Not the Packers’ 1st Choice
When former Packers president Bob Harlan retired in 2006, Murphy was not the original choice to replace him. John Jones, who was the Packers’ senior vice president and COO at the time, was originally selected to succeed Harlan. However, days before Jones was set to begin his new role, he took a leave of absence because of health issues. Harlan retain his position as president and CEO in order to name a successor. On December 3, 2007, the Packers announced Murphy, a former player with the Washington Redskins who at the time was the athletic director at Northwestern University, as president and CEO.
In his 16 years leading the franchise, the Packers have been to the playoffs 12 times — including five trips to the NFC championship game — and won the Super Bowl in 2011.
“History is going to look kindly on his tenure with the Packers,” according to a 2022 column on The Power Sweep, a longtime Packers blog. Writer Jon Meedink credited Murphy with keeping “one of the league’s marquee franchises financially healthy and stable,” predicting he is bound for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Mark Murphy Has Overseen Big Changes
In Murphy’s first full season as president and CEO, he was forced to deal with a big change. Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre retired, leaving Aaron Rodgers as the Packers starting quarterback. The Packers finished 6-10 in Rodgers’ maiden campaign, but by 2011 the Packers were Super Bowl champions. In the seasons that followed, the Packers finished first in the NFC North in four straight seasons between 2011 and 2014, including a 15-1 record in the 2011 campaign.
GettyAaron Rodgers and Brett Favre were the Packers starters for a combined 30 years
In 2023, Murphy was once again tasked with guiding the Packers during a year of transition. In 2022, the Packers traded Rodgers, who developed into a future Hall of Famer, to the New York Jets, and promoted third-year quarterback Jordan Love to the starting role. The Packers again made the playoffs, eventually falling to the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round.
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