A couple of years ago when I was still working in sports talk radio, members of my staff would make a daily habit of busting the chops of Green Bay Packers GM Ted Thompson.  Thompson let a whole bunch of players go, refused to do radio interviews, fired coach Mike Sherman and almost committed heresy (in this state, anyway) by protracting negotiations with Brett Favre and even saying that he was prepared for Favre not coming back.

It was a daily drone of "what kind of idiot is this guy?"  Some of us actually took the high road and argued that in order to build on a previous site you had to raze the existing barn.  Three years later, look at the barn that Ted Thompson has built.

With a slew of unknown (and, at the time, unpopular) draft picks, Thompson has taken a team that lost 12 games in Sherman's last year (2005) to 8-8 last year under Mike McCarthy to the NFC championship game.  Give McCarthy his credit, give the Hillbilly his credit, but the guy, standing in the shadows, pulling all the strings is Ted Thompson.

I admire Thompson for a lot of reasons.  First, when he came to Green Bay, he knew he was going to have to blow things up and start over.  Then, he was going to take flak from fans, media and even his starting quarterback.  One of the reasons that Favre waited so long prior to the 2006 season to decide he was coming back is that he hated the fact the team was going young.  Favre wanted to win NOW and he didn't think with a rookie coach and a bunch of young guys the team would be successful anytime soon and he would go out with a whimper.  There was even talk of Favre being traded (which was always just rumors, but good speculation non e the less.)  Now, Favre couldn't be happier, back in the spotlight once more and having anybody with a pen or microphone having a man crush on him.

Thompson made bold draft picks.  He picked Aaron Rodgers at 24 in his first draft because Rodgers was a top ten QB who had fallen and was the best athlete available at that point.  He was also sending Favre a message that if he didn't want to come back, so be it, his heir apparent was going to be groomed.  He drafted no name, unknown players like Greg Jennings, Darrin Colledge, Brady Poppinga, Junius Coston, Marviel Underwood, Will Blackmon, Nick Collins, Brandon Jackson, DeShawn Wynn and Aaron Rouse.  Diamonds in the rough all, but good players, players who helped get Gren Bay back in the national conversation.  The amazing thing about Thomson's drafts are how many late rounders stuck with the team.  That shows good scouting by Thompson and his staff, something Ted excelled in prior to coming to Green Bay.

Thompson is not an outgoing guy.  He talks very laconically and shuns the spotlight.  He has almost a paranoid distrust of the media, which is understandable given how they've bashed him.  But the bottom line is the man was patient and got the results he wanted by being patient, not listening to the critics or mortgaging his team's future.

The truth is Green Bay is the new king of the NFC North and, if Minnesota continues to develop and Purple Jesus continues to run like he did this year, it could be a three horse race every year with Green Bay, the Vikings and maybe, if Jerry Angelo can remove his cranium from his rectum, the Bears.  Even the Lions could add some spice down the road as well.

When a film is really good, people talk about the actors, the people on camera that make it a hit.  But a lot of the credit should go to the director, the man who had the vision, was given the carte blanche to see if through and delivered.  You may not know who Ted Thompson is or what he does, but I guarantee you a lot of people do, especially after yesterday.

Lightning Round

• Even the locals are getting sick of " all Hillbilly all the time
• Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy has been upgraded to guru status.  I love how these things cycle.  He'll be hot now and if the Packers stumble next year, he'll be the target of every writer and talk show host in Wisconsin.  If McCarthy doesn't think that's possible, perhaps a phone call to Lovie Smith is in order.
  
• Jacksonville fought valiantly but still fell short against the now 17-0 New England Patriots.  Assuming the Colts win this afternoon, Peyton manning is the last line of defense for the members of the 1972 Dolphins.
• White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen is currently in the Dominican hoping for a big, fat bonus.
• Here's the real reason Pete Carroll is thinking of going back to the NFL, even though most smart people seem to think he's crazy.
  
• A teenager suing Marcus Vick for an alleged two-year sexual relationship that began when she was 15.  She is trying to get Michael Vick to deposition. I doubt he will cooperate as this is a civil, not a criminal complaint and Vick's participation will not lighten his sentence any. One more thought: Isn't it time that the courts held girls accountable for spreading their legs and dismissed cases like this if the sex was consensual?  You can't legally have sex unless a woman says yes, so the assumption here is she did it to herself by agreeing to have sex with Marcus Vick.  The laws in this country were originally set up to protect the virtue of young women, an outdated notion to be sure.  If some teenage girl agrees to spread her legs, the man should be held harmless, provided he did not physically force it to happen, intimidate her or threaten her.
• The Brewers cloud their outfield situation even further.  Why is it that they are insisting on Ryan Braun playing left field?  It sounds like a gamble they will regret.
• A sad day for Urban Meyer.  He may have to learn how to play golf with all this new free time he'll have.
  
• Nice of Al Sharpton t o take the same, nasty, defiant, we'll get that son of a bitch fired at all costs tone with the Golf Channel that he took with Don Imus (that was sarcasm, btw).  Look, if you haven't figured out by now that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson only attend the big storms just to get themselves on TV you've totally missed the boat.  And, why, you may ask yourself hasn't the liberal media gone after Kelly Tilghman?  Because bringing her and the Golf Channel down provides no competitive or strategic advancement for them to further their cause.  Getting Don Imus, a noted and entrenched commentator out of the way, furthered their cause.  So, you see kids, the liberals, like Al and Jesse, pick and choose their battles not based on moral outrage or the right thing, but rather what's in it for them and how big a stage is it. 
  
• Here's a guy who doesn't often escape his parent's basement