July 25, at the Green Bay Packers‘ annual shareholders’ meeting, Mark Murphy will retire as team president after 17 full seasons at the position. He will celebrate his 70th birthday 12 days before then, a milestone that also marks the Packers’ mandatory retirement age, thus necessitating the personnel change. Last June the team announced Ed Policy, who has been with the franchise since 2012, as his successor.
Murphy’s retirement bookends the most successful period, by winning percentage, of Packers football in the Super Bowl Era. Playing under Murphy (2008 to 2024), Green Bay has enjoyed a run of prosperity impressive not only by franchise standards, but also one that has made the team among the most consistent contenders in the league.
Although the Packers have not reached a Super Bowl since the 2010 season, suffering a number of playoff letdowns in recent years, their overall performance under Murphy is worth looking back on.
The Green Bay Packers Have Enjoyed Historically Good Times with Mark Murphy as President
Since the American and National Football Leagues merged in 1966 to found the present-day NFL, the Packers have cycled through five team presidents. Among them, only Dominic Olejniczak (1958-1981), Bob Harlan (1989-2005) and Murphy have held office for at least a decade.
After being ordained as Harlan’s heir in December 2007, Murphy took over presidential duties after the season, kicking off a fresh era of Packers dominance.
In Green Bay’s 1960s glory days, the green and gold won five championships in seven years, including the first two Super Bowls. In subsequent years, no team president has compiled a better winning percentage than Murphy, whose tenure has seen the Packers go 153-88-2 (.633). In that time, they have made the playoffs 13 times, winning 12 postseason games.
One could say they peaked early, throwing their sole Super Bowl parade in Murphy’s third season on the job, but they have fielded stronger rosters since. If anything, Green Bay’s body of work under Murphy is underappreciated – playoff disappointment has fermented the taste of September-December dominance.
Stepping Down, Murphy Leaves Legacy of High Standards
The very year after winning it all as a wild card, Aaron Rodgers led the infamous 15-1 team, upset in the first round by the eventual-champion Giants. Four times the Packers claimed NFC North titles by winning 12-plus games.
Four other times, too, they reached the conference championship, most recently in 2020, when they fell to Tom Brady and Tampa Bay. That year, Rodgers won his third of four MVPs and set the second-highest passer rating in NFL history (121.5), bested only by his own 122.5 rating in 2011.
Murphy is inextricably linked to the iconic Rodgers edition of the Packers, undertaking president operations the same season Rodgers assumed the starting job at quarterback following Brett Favre’s departure. Murphy was there, 15 years later, for the not so-peaceful power transfer between Rodgers and Jordan Love, imparting his legacy to this new chapter in franchise history.
The team will look to take the next step this season with Love under center, building on wild card berths each of the past two years.
As Green Bay’s last glimpse of the Lombardi Trophy grows staler by the season, many fans are ready for changes up top.
That said, Policy may have a tough time equaling the collective accomplishments Murphy oversaw across his presidency.
