GREEN BAY — His tenure had been celebrated. The torch had been passed. His 18th and final shareholders meeting was in the books.

All of which meant only one thing:

It was time for Mark Murphy’s final turn as an amateur stand-up comic.

And just like his successful run as the Green Bay Packers team president and CEO, he nailed it.

See, throughout his time atop the Packers organizational flowchart — a stint that began in January 2008 and ended Friday, when he was succeeded by new president/CEO Ed Policy at the shareholders meeting at Lambeau Field — Murphy seemed to fancy himself not just as the publicly-owned franchise’s leader, and not just as a steward of one of the NFL’s signature brands.

Not that he didn’t handle those two jobs brilliantly. He exponentially grew the team’s financial wherewithal, but he also sustained the football operation’s on-field success with two smart hires: A new general manager (Brian Gutekunst, who succeeded an ailing Ted Thompson in 2018) and new head coach (Matt LaFleur, who replaced Super Bowl-champion Mike McCarthy in 2019 after McCarthy’s messy firing with four games left in the 2018 season).

“Hopefully,” Murphy said of the team’s loyal-but-rabid fan base, “they feel like I’ve left the organization better than I found it.”

He did. But he’s always loved a good joke, too. And while his zingers didn’t always land, he always was all-in for the laugh. His distinctive guffaw was unmistakable.

And so, as he prepared for life after his presidency Friday evening, following a two-hour shareholders meeting that included a lengthy video tribute to him and an even longer line of autograph seekers and well-wishers as he exited through the team tunnel, Murphy wasn’t about to pass up his final open mic night at the Chuckle Hut otherwise known as the Lambeau Field media auditorium.

He joked about how he was turning the Q&A session into an infomercial for the Door County golf course he purchased awhile back, Maxwelton Braes.

“It’s the finest golf course in Bailey’s Harbor,” Murphy said, later slipping in a one-liner about the expensive new irrigation system he’d recently installed. “It’s also the only golf course in Bailey’s Harbor.”

He dodged a suggestion that he could return to the NFL Players Association — where he worked for three years in the 1980s after his playing career ended in 1984 — amid the players union’s recent tumult.

“Have you been reading Pro Football Talk?” he said, chuckling. “I can neither confirm nor deny.”

He made it clear that he won’t keep an office at Lambeau Field, although he quickly added that he plans to find one elsewhere at his wife Laurie’s behest.

“I know my wife would love if I had an office to go to, so I’m looking at some options. That’s all I’ll say,” he said. “I don’t think she wants me hanging around the house.”

And as he proudly discussed the success of the Titletown development across the street from Lambeau, he zinged the big box store, dilapidated motel and rundown strip mall it replaced.

“I’d say it exceeded my vision and my expectations. It’s been phenomenal,” he said. “Not a single person has said, ‘I miss K-Mart. Why isn’t K-Mart here anymore?’”

When he wasn’t yukking it up, though, Murphy was introspective.

He admitted that his retirement — required by the team’s bylaws, which contain a mandatory retirement age of 70 — is “bittersweet.” And he confessed that if not for the mandatory retirement age, he believes he could continue in the job.

“I do. Yeah. But for how long?” he said. “Ed’s ready. I think [the rule] is good for the organization. Quite honestly, it’s good for me. I think I’m young enough that I’ve got a number of different things I’m looking at that I think will be exciting.

“Also, [we’re] have about to seven grandchildren. To be able to spend time with them and my children is something that’s been hard. I’ve tried. but we’ll definitely have more time and be able to travel much more than we have in the past.”

Murphy also acknowledged the challenge it was to follow Bob Harlan, just as Aaron Rodgers had to follow Brett Favre at quarterback — and now Jordan Love is following Rodgers.

Harlan may have been the most consequential and successful president in the organization’s long history, having hired Pro Football Hall of Fame general manager Ron Wolf to rebuild the downtrodden franchise into a Super Bowl champion after decades of futility; brought all home games to Lambeau Field in 1994 after six decades of splitting the home schedule between Green Bay and Milwaukee; and having successfully lobbied for a stadium referendum and sales tax in 2000 that allowed the team to redevelop its iconic home and generate new revenue streams.

“I feel so grateful to Bob Harlan. He and I overlapped for a number of months, but more importantly, he left the organization in a great place,” Murphy said. “And hopefully, I’ve done the same for Ed.”

And he acknowledged that, despite the joy he felt in bringing the NFL Draft to Green Bay in spring and all the other things he accomplished during his time in charge.

“In my career in business and within the league, you see examples of where maybe people stay on a little too long,” he said. “I think this [setup] has served the Packers well. When [you] turn 70, you know that you’re going to emeritus status. I knew it, obviously, when I took the job. But it was always, ‘Well, that’s way down the road.’

“As the last couple years have come on, I think I savor everything a little more knowing this was going to be the end. But I’m excited. I’ll be a huge Packer fan and hopefully — you know, it’s hard to win the NFL — but I think we’re positioned to have success for a number of years to come.”

For his part, Policy made sure that the shareholders meeting was about Murphy, not about him. He centered his address to the crowd of 6,529 on his predecessor’s accomplishments, deciding to hold off on detailing his own vision for the organization.

“We all know it’s never easy following somebody like Mark Murphy,” Policy told the shareholders before introducing the team’s tribute video to Murphy. “But it’s much easier if he’s taken the time to prepare you to do so.”

But while Murphy said he will always be available to Policy as a resource, he wants to give his successor the same space that Harlan gave him.

“Ed and I have a great relationship. Anytime he needs to call me or talk to me, I’ll be there for him,” Murphy said. “But I’m not going to come into the office. I think it’s better that once you leave, that’s it.”

Then, of course, Murphy had one last one-liner.

“I might sneak in on weekends.”

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