After a decade of working behind the scenes, Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy took a major step into the spotlight in early 2018.
Responding to a disappointing 2017 season, Murphy moved Ted Thompson out of his general manager position, hired Brian Gutekunst to take his place, and retained Mike McCarthy as head coach.
Normally, it wouldn’t be up to a team president to make a coaching decision, but Murphy gave himself that responsibility in a series of somewhat unusual (and more than a little contradictory) moves. The end result was a power structure in which the head coach and general manager reside on essentially equal footing, both reporting to Murphy.