Ted Thompson Nixes Retirement Talk: "I'm just getting started"

About two weeks ago, the Milwaukee Jounral-Sentinel’s Bob McGinn wrote about the Packers’ need to look toward the future with head coach Mike McCarthy and GM Ted Thompson; McCarthy’s current contract goes through the 2015 season while Thompson’s lasts until after the 2016 Draft. The team is reportedly negotiating an extension with McCarthy, while it’s unknown what the status is in that regard for the 61-year-old Thompson. Might he retire?

“I’m just getting started,” said Thompson, via ESPN’s Rob Demovsky. “No. I feel pretty good. This is always a fun weekend for us in scouting, because it all kind of comes together. Sometimes you try to look away because it doesn’t look quite as good as you thought it was supposed to look, and other times it’s ‘Hey, that’s pretty good.’ I think it’s a cool thing to see these guys in a Packer uniform for the first time and see the enthusiasm. It’ll get more interesting next week when the veterans are back.”

Thompson doesn’t exactly have outside interests, and he’s pretty objectively good at his job. One can quibble that he’s never really adequately replaced defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins (who signed with the Eagles in 2011) or Nick Collins (who suffered a career-ending neck injury in 2011) at safety, but the team’s made the playoffs for five straight years and won a Super Bowl. Any Packers fan wishing for Thompson to be gone is treading dangerously in a “grass is greener” is situation.