Packers extend GM Thompson's contract

Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson has signed a multi-year contract extension, the team announced Wednesday. He had two years remaining on his old contract.

Thompson spoke to the media after the extension was announced. Here are some highlights:

On his contract extension:

(Team CEO and president) Mark Murphy and I had some ongoing conversations, general-type conversations. I felt very appreciated by the organization. Work with fine people. The more you think about it, how nuts are you to walk away from something like this. It's not my family, but I have a lot of really good friends here and co-workers that I enjoy coming to work with every day. It's life, but it's life on an exaggerated scale. I want to be here. From a negative standpoint, it's easy to say I'm going to ride off in to the sunset or go milk some cows, but I have people I'm responsible for here, too.

Part of you that said you didn't want to sign an extension?

I felt good. You always self-evaluate as you go along in life. How much longer do you want to do this? I have family back home in Texas. I've not done a good job of this, but I'm going to do a better job of getting back home to see them. I want to go back and be more connected to my family.

On what it meant to be wanted back:

I feel great. I'm honored that Mark Murphy and the organization would like to have me stay on. This place means a lot to me. Counting the eight years before and almost 10 (now), that's a lot of your life. I'm honored to be a part of it.

On how long he plays to stay on:

I think I'll just let it play itself out. Most people have these artificial dates in mind of I'm going to retire in X number of years or a certain age. Everybody is different. It seems to me a lot of people can be productive later on in life. We'll see. I enjoy what I do. I have really good people who I work with. Because of that I feel pretty energized to keep going.

More delegation of duties?

No, you just manage your time a little better. All of a sudden through course of a season, you could have a Friday or Saturday that you don't have to be in the office and go see my nephew play ball.

Are you still a scout?

Absolutely. That's what I am. I'm a scout. I worked alongside some good scouts upstairs. That's what I do and that's what I enjoy. As a scout, you're always looking for that diamond that no one else can find. That's difficult to do in this day and age. You're still looking to one-up somebody else that's in your business. I'm still a scout.

On players staying healthy so far:

I'm knocking on wood. You're jinxing me. You never talk about your good fortune. When things are going good, you stay quiet and hopefully things will continue to be good.

On priority of extending coach Mike McCarthy's contract:

It's been the plan the whole time. The way the organization is set up obviously, I'm not giving any trade secrets away, it's the way it's always been done here. The general manager kind of gets put away and then you do the head coach.

How is that relationship?

I think when two people work together for as long as Mike has, Mike and I have, I think you develop certain understandings of each other. There are certain things you can communicate that are unsaid as opposed to originally when you probably need to spell everything out. But I think we have a very good working relationship. We anticipate each other's thoughts often, which might drive both of us crazy sometimes, but I think it's working well and has worked well. Obviously, we see things pretty close.

On Family Night changing to a practice:

Just the way the whole schedule laid out for Mike and his staff. We need that day as a normal practice day. We'll still have some really good fireworks.

On second-year running back Eddie Lacy:

I thought Eddie Lacy was pretty accomplished when he got here, but he's probably more confident and relaxed as a player. He has his own style.