Open Mike: Put Packers Inc. in Hall of Fame

Jan. 27, 2011

Green Bay is a tiny dot on the map of North America but a giant footprint on the sports landscape. The road to the Super Bowl doesn't always run through Green Bay, but the game's tradition backpedals to it. Always.

Green Bay is the enduring renewable resource in what makes pro football America's favorite sport.

The city of Green Bay and its football team, the Packers, are the strongest bond that connects the sport's roots to its present. The more football can honor Green Bay and the community ownership that makes it unique in the world of sports, the more lasting homage is paid to what the city and its team represent.

There is an ultimate honor that can be bestowed on the Green Bay Packers -- installing the Green Bay Packers owners into the Pro Football Hall of Fame under the category of contributors.

There is no precedent for enshrining a group in the Canton shrine, but there is a simple answer to that: make one.

Green Bay will be on center stage for the next week in its matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium a week from Sunday.

In any other professional league, a Pittsburgh-Green Bay championship game would be a quaint story of how small-market teams defied the demographics to chug their way to the top. And behind the scenes, the marketers and ad salesman would be on suicide watch over minuscule television ratings.

But the Packers playing the Steelers is a dream pairing. They are two great franchises from America's heartland who embody the lifeblood and soul of the NFL, with trophy cases overflowing with championship hardware and enough Hall of Famers in both franchises to warrant having their own wing in Canton.

No disrespect is meant here toward the Steelers. Their lineage and pedigree is faultless, dating to the legendary Art Rooney, who bought the franchise in 1933.

But the Packers are a special case as a community-owned franchise since the Green Bay Packers Inc. was established as a nonprofit corporation on Aug. 18, 1923.

Here in Detroit, we have a single owner in William Clay Ford. In Dallas, it's Jerry Jones. In Washington it's Daniel Snyder. That's pretty much the standard for 31 of 32 teams in the NFL -- one owner, sometimes with minority partners, as is the case in Pittsburgh.

In Green Bay, the community owns the franchise. There are 4,750,934 shares owned by 112,015 stockholders -- none of whom has any real say in the day-to-day operation of the franchise. Their mission is to keep the franchise solvent, and they contribute heavily to charities.

The corporation is run by a board of directors and a seven-member executive committee, but President and CEO Mark Murphy and GM Ted Thompson run the football team.

On Page 4 of the Packers' media guide is a picture of a sign that reads: "Welcome to Green Bay. Population 102,313."

At least two NFL games have drawn bigger crowds. There were 105,121 on hand for the first game at Cowboys Stadium between the Cowboys and Giants in 2009. A 2005 game between the Cardinals and 49ers in Mexico City drew 103,467.

Imagine another pro league staying in business for nearly a century in a city with a population the size of Green Bay.

Green Bay has staying power, something we admire in America. It might be small geographically, but it casts a long shadow and has a big voice that give it stature far beyond its physical dimension.

The metropolitan Green Bay television market ranks No. 70 in America with 443,420 TV households, but the Packers are among the most popular franchises in any sport.

NFL franchises have shuffled around the country like career army officers getting new orders, but the Packers have stayed put.

New York is the No. 1 TV market with 7.493 million households -- and both New York football franchises, the Jets and Giants, long ago departed New York City for New Jersey.

There is no franchise in Los Angeles, the No. 2 TV market with 5.659 million households.

The Rams left Los Angeles for Anaheim, then dumped Anaheim for St. Louis. The Raiders moved from Oakland to Los Angeles and back to Oakland.

Cleveland once lost the Browns to Baltimore. Baltimore lost the Colts to Indianapolis. The Cardinals ditched Chicago for St. Louis, then high-tailed it from St. Louis to Arizona.

Meanwhile, the Packers stayed put in a place that became known as Titletown U.S.A. and gave us icons such as Lombardi, Starr and Favre, the Ice Bowl and a playing field reverently known as "The Frozen Tundra."

From experience as a selector, I can tell you that the selectors who vote on the Hall of Fame are knowledgeable and fair-minded. They research every candidate thoroughly. There can be some debate about who gets in, but no one can question whether each candidate gets a fair shot.

A process that begins with nominating candidates followed by reduction votes ultimately results in who gets voted into Canton each year.

The 17 finalists are set for the 2011 class and will be voted on the day before the Super Bowl.

There is precedent for multiple owners of the same franchise to make the Hall. There are two father-son combinations -- Tim and Wellington Mara of the Giants, Art and Dan Rooney of the Steelers.

Packers' founder Curley Lambeau is in the Hall of Fame as a coach and contributor. It would be fitting to give him company from his hometown in 2012.