GREEN BAY (NBC 26) \u2014 Inside the Lambeau Field atrium Monday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers held a celebration of life for the late Packers president Bob Harlan. Talking to anyone inside or outside the organization, Harlan had a way to make everyone feel special.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only is this the most historic franchise in pro football,\u201d said Harlan\u2019s son Kevin Harlan, the legendary sportscaster, \u201cbut it\u2019s become now the most innovative. And for Little Green Bay, Wisconsin \u2014 think of that. Isn\u2019t this remarkable? It\u2019s the best story in sports.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kevin Harlan was joined in remembering his father by a few big names in franchise history, including current Packers President Ed Policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis roof in the atrium below it would not exist if not for Bob\u2019s vision and his tenacity,\u201d Policy said.<\/p>\n
Policy had known Harlan from a young age, when his dad, Carmen Policy, was running the 49ers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy far the most important meeting I ever had with him was when I got this job,\u201d Policy said. \u201cI called Bob and asked to meet with me for just half an hour. I was trying to be very respectful of his time. Bob came over and met with me at Lambeau Field\u2019s atrium for about three and a half hours, and was incredibly gracious with his time and his wisdom. That\u2019s a conversation I\u2019ll never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the event, NBC 26 caught up with former Packers President Mark Murphy, who said it was hard following a legend.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time issues would come up \u2014 and for three, four, five years \u2014 I\u2019d call Bob and say, \u2018What do you think about this issue?\u2019 And he was just so gracious with his time,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n
Making an appearance was former Green Bay and current Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy, who couldn\u2019t help but get choked up when he took the stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy memory will always be him with a cup of coffee,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cShowing up in the office, \u2018Are you getting everything you need? And how\u2019s Jessica? How are the boys doing?\u2019 The boys were really young then.\u201d<\/p>\n
But another Packers legend got choked up as well: former GM Ron Wolf. Together, the pair turned the Packers from a struggling franchise back into a winning one.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreen Bay was deader than a dead mule when I got here,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cFor Bob Harlan to take a chance on me and give me this opportunity \u2014 again, as I said, it\u2019s a once-in-a-lifetime place and it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a game to be determined later this season, the Packers will add Harlan\u2019s name to the Wall of Legends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREEN BAY (NBC 26) \u2014 Inside the Lambeau Field atrium Monday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers held a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[24504,24503,7,41,345,2514,2513,52842,5514,7866,6,428],"class_list":["post-830490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-green-bay-packers","tag-bob-harlan","tag-ed-policy","tag-football","tag-green-bay","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-greenbay","tag-greenbaypackers","tag-kevin-harlan","tag-mark-murphy","tag-mike-mccarthy","tag-nfl","tag-packers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116282430216128326","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}