Pursuits

The Green Bay Packers Have the Best Owners in Football

The fans are shareholders. The CEO is a union leader and ex-player. The city is a dot on the map. The bizarre anomaly of the Green Bay Packers—the franchise that rules the NFL

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By Karl Taro Greenfeld

October 21, 2011 at 1:12 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

BusinessWeek Cover Image (11_44, portrait)

This article is part of the October 24, 2011 issue of businessweek.

If Lambeau Field is hallowed National Football League ground—was it this goal line or the far one where Bart Starr sneaked in for the winning touchdown in ’67?—then it was only fitting that the NFL clergy gathered there in early September to celebrate the start of a new season. The preceding months had been dominated by bitter negotiations between the league’s 32 owners and the players’ union, which had led to an owners’ lockout and the cancellation of training camp. For a while the regular season itself seemed in jeopardy until the two sides reached a new collective bargaining agreement six weeks before opening Sunday.

The season’s first game was a clash between the two most recent Super Bowl champions, the Green Bay Packers and the New Orleans Saints, and as the teams warmed up on a clear autumn night, Lambeau had the atmosphere of a homecoming weekend. There was Starr holding a Green Bay Packer flag, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell greeting New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton, and Bob Costas and Tony Dungy doing the NBC pregame show.