PFHOF Profile: Ron Wolf
The builder category is an interesting group of people as executives can at one moment be a hero or at another moment be the enemy.
It can happen almost immediately to any of the executives as they can make one move that can change the attitude towards them both positively and negatively.
They can be the person who changed a franchise to make them a champion or make them a perennial loser.
They can do irrevocable damage to a franchise and make moves that it may take decades to recover from.
They can also make the one move that changes the franchise from that loser to contender in a matter of years.
This is the importance of the team builders and why they earn the reverence of fans and establish a legacy that makes them one of the best in the game.
That is the life of Ron Wolf as he changed a franchise from a perennial loser and brought them back to the Super Bowl.
He began his career as a scout with the Raiders and later became the first general manager of the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It wasn’t until his last job that he truly gained legendary status though as he joined the Green Bay Packers as an Executive Vice President and General Manager.
The Packers are a franchise that is among the most legendary in the NFL with more championships than any other franchise in the league.
The problem was that those championships came before the modern era and when Wolf joined the team in 1991 their last championship had come in 1967.
It had been 24 years since the city known as titletown had won a championships and the fans had been restless for a long time.
The addition of Wolf was the beginning of what became a new era in the Packers long legacy of winning.
Wolf began his tenure as the GM by hiring Mike Holmgren to lead a new attitude in the Packers offence.
Then Wolf acquired Brett Favre from the Atlanta Falcons to be the backup to Don Majkowski and potentially a starter down the road.
Wolf got somewhat lucky in that season when Majkowski went down and led to the emergence of Favre as the starting quarterback and eventual Hall of Famer.
With Favre leading a new offence by Holmgren Wolf added the final piece in signing the Minister of Defence Reggie White amid a number of offers.
The moves by Wolf eventually led to the end of a massive rebuild in a city that is known for winning and eventually ended the drought.
In 1996 the Packers took this rebuild and won Super Bowl XXXI to bring the Vince Lombardi Trophy back to Green Bay.
The moves he made went a long way to earning a third Super Bowl for the Packers and allowed him to enter the lore of the Packers.
Wolf is a legend in Green Bay and despite winning two more Super Bowls before his time in Wisconsin he remains a part of the large legend of the Green Bay Packers.
That legend has given him even more juice in his bid for the Hall of Fame and brought him over the edge after putting together three championships.
Wolf created winners in his time in the NFL and his legend with the Packers only adds to the fact that he was one of the greatest team builders in NFL history.
That is what has put him among the greatest contributors in the NFL and has earned him a bust in Canton.
The Sport Addiction 