If This Wolf Is Knocking at the Door, Let Him In

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Holy bratwurst, the facts are the facts: The Packers’ rise to prominence once again, culminating in the return to the Super Bowl, all began in 1963 with Al Davis.

Back in the days when Davis knew what he was doing--just a joke, Al--he identified a 21-year-old University of Oklahoma graduate working for a football magazine in Chicago as a brilliant young man who had the knack for locating talent.

Davis, who had just become coach and general manager of the Raiders, had very little money to offer, but he demanded a move to Oakland within seven days--site unseen--if there was interest. It took Ron Wolf only two days to arrive, and thus began a 25-year relationship with the Raiders that would become the foundation for all that is good now in Green Bay.

“Everything I know about this game is directly attributable to what I learned working with Al Davis,” says Wolf, 58, the general manager of the Packers and the man who traded for Brett Favre and signed Reggie White. “I still think when it comes to every facet of the game of football, he’s the best there is in the National Football League.”

This is no time to argue with Ron Wolf.

The Packers were 4-12 in 1991, the year before Wolf arrived, and they have had nothing but winning seasons in his five years in Green Bay, including four consecutive playoff appearances. He considered hiring Bill Parcells to coach the Packers before signing Mike Holmgren, and together they make one of the most impressive management tandems in the NFL.

“Al Davis took the time to train me,” Wolf says in declining to take a bow. “I was very fortunate to have that opportunity.”

Wolf pushed himself hard for Davis, so hard that he suffered a heart attack, and yet seven days later was back at Raider headquarters for the NFL draft.

“Ron Wolf is just excellent,” Davis says. “He became my eyes and ears while I was coaching and later my co-worker and close friend. He’s one of the guys who built this organization.

“Years later, he went to Tampa Bay because Carroll Rosenbloom [owner of the Rams] recommended him to owner Hugh Culverhouse. Carroll did that because he wanted to screw up our organization. He called after Hugh hired Ron and said, ‘How do you like that?’ ”

The Buccaneers, of course, blew it, as they have done throughout their losing existence. They fired Wolf, who returned to the Raiders and remained with them in Los Angeles before splitting with Davis and moving on to join the New York Jets as a scout.

Call it a coincidence, but in the six years since Wolf’s departure, the Raiders have floundered, and have been to the playoffs but twice.

“Sure, losing Ron Wolf hurt us,” says Davis. “Any time you subtract it hurts. But I am very happy for him. He was destined for success. He hit on Favre, Reggie’s signing helped a lot, but then this guy knows how to put the pieces together.”

And isn’t it great that the Packers, who embody the traditional approach to football, as Al Davis does, are in the Super Bowl with Wolf in command?

“It would be better if the Raiders were there,” Davis says. “I think it’s great for Ron because he’s a wonderful man, but I have no special feelings for the Packers being there.”

Wolf in the Super Bowl, as much as the Packers, however, is just what the NFL needs. In addition to distinguishing himself as one of the game’s premier general managers, Wolf is one of the game’s biggest defenders and its most strident critic.

“I view it as an honor, being in the NFL, but it perturbs me when there are things beyond my control that determine whether I am successful or not,” Wolf says. “Things have become magnified too greatly. I understand everybody wants to win, but look at what has happened in San Francisco. The coach with the best record in the NFL is no longer coaching.

“To me, that’s incredible. That type of stuff bothers me.

“It’s like Al hiring me the way he did years ago; that couldn’t happen today. Our game’s gotten too big. Too much money. In those days, people worked for next to nothing and the thrill of football.”

The demand for instant success cost Wolf his job at Tampa Bay, although after his departure the Buccaneers used his personnel and won the NFC Central Division title in 1979. With the passing of time, the pressure to win has increased. There have been 10 coaching changes this year, including David Shula’s midseason dismissal, and New England’s Parcells is expected to leave the Patriots after the Super Bowl.

“Before, a person had the opportunity to come in and try to put forth their best effort and succeed because they were given some time to do that,” Wolf says. “That’s no longer the case. If you don’t get it done in a couple of years, it’s over. I attribute a lot of it to impatience and the new people in the league who are solely in it to make money.

“I also think the growth of media has had an impact. You win a game and you have 450 people asking you now how you won. You lose and you have 550 people asking how you could have lost. That magnifies everything. You can’t go anywhere today without seeing something on the Super Bowl. It’s like the game itself gets lost.”

There were tears in Wolf’s eyes after his team had defeated Carolina to earn the right to play in the Super Bowl, and when asked to speak to the fans at Lambeau Field, he shouted like a youngster who just received his first football autograph.

“It’s a sky-high feeling,” Wolf says, and the old war horse is grinning.

Getting to the Super Bowl, maybe even more than winning it, is what folks like Ron Wolf are all about.

COACHING CHANGES

RAMS--San Francisco defensive coordinator Pete Carroll wanted a $50,000 spending allowance. President John Shaw should be used to such requests, but he took offense and scratched Carroll’s name off his list.

Shaw wants San Francisco’s George Seifert, but Seifert said he’s going duck hunting. Shaw doesn’t know how Jim Mora will sell with the Ram faithful, and in truth he’d like to hire Minnesota’s Dennis Green. Yeah, that would work--Dennis Green and Lawrence Phillips in the same city.

What’s left? A tug of war with the Chargers over Jacksonville’s offensive coordinator, Kevin Gilbride. Does Gilbride go for the better offensive personnel in St. Louis or the better organization in San Diego?

CHARGERS--General Manager Bobby Beathard has hired only two head coaches in his career, Joe Gibbs and Bobby Ross, and didn’t interview either one before hiring him. This time around, he has talked at least twice to Gilbride, Mora and Carolina’s defensive coordinator, Vic Fangio.

SAINTS--Owner Tom Benson has produced concrete evidence that he’s a flake. In questionnaires he mailed out to prospective candidates, he asked if they would be willing to work weekends.

Carolina denied Benson permission to talk with General Manager Bill Polian, who would have left and taken Fangio with him to New Orleans as coach. Now John Mackovic, Texas and former Kansas City Chief coach, is on Benson’s list. Don’t throw away those paper bags.

JETS--It’s a foregone conclusion around the league that New England’s Parcells will be coaching the Jets next year, but New York is going to have to pay dearly for his services.

There is a clause in Parcells’ contract demanding unspecified compensation to the Patriots if he leaves. The Baltimore Colts received a first-round draft pick for Don Shula under similar circumstances in 1970. If the Patriots get the Jets’ first-round pick, they will be making the first selection in this year’s draft. So who would you want, Peyton Manning or Parcells?

PATRIOTS--If Parcells leaves, Carroll probably will drop that demand for a $50,000 expense account and pay his own way to New England.

RAIDERS--League officials say Davis is on the prowl for a young coach. So far he’s taken an interest in the University of Miami’s Butch Davis and Philadelphia Eagle offensive coordinator Jon Gruden, although Davis says the interest in Gruden was restricted to his being an assistant coach.

Offensive coordinator Joe Bugel, the early favorite, supposedly hurt himself when he considered leaving earlier. Special teams coach Rusty Tillman appears to be a logical choice, but then why the delay?

FALCONS--Dan Reeves wanted the Atlanta job before he ever went to Denver because it was close to home. Apparently it’s his now, and the Falcons have the best on-the-field coach available. But please, don’t let him be in charge of personnel. The guy’s always looking for free-agent slugs, like himself when he played for the Cowboys, who work hard to make something of themselves.

LIONS--Detroit has Bobby Ross, who went out of his way to rip Beathard, his former boss. He let it be known that he was being forced to leave San Diego because he wouldn’t dump his offensive and defensive coordinators. So he goes to Detroit and gets rid of both of them. Now he’s in charge of the Lions’ salary cap. Hope someone explains it to him.

GIANTS--General Manager George Young wanted Jim Fassel all along, but Michigan State Coach Nick Saban received serious consideration. Fassel has already anointed Dave Brown the team’s starting quarterback, which suggests Fassel is either a miracle worker or will be looking for work again in a few years.

49ERS--San Francisco got the best 6-6 coach available, Steve Mariucci, to replace the winningest coach in NFL history.