Mike Vandermause

Mike Vandermause was a columnist for the Green Bay Press-Gazette and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Packer Plus before retiring from sports journalism in 2014

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

@WesHod I can’t believe it’s been 15 years, @WesHod. I think you are in contention to be named best undrafted free agent sports clerk in Press-Gazette history! I didn’t care what @RobDemovsky said about you when you came on board, I knew you were going to be a great hire!

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

For all the Tom Brady fans out there...

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

Who doesn’t love snow? It’s a winter wonderland in Green Bay tonight.

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

Lots of blame to go around for #Packers loss, with Kevin King at front of the line. But this fact can’t be ignored: Offense produced 3 points in final 3 possessions.

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

Aaron Rodgers-led #Packers teams are 1-4 in games when Super Bowl is on the line. Tom Brady-led teams are 10-4. #Brady #GOAT

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

#Packers’ NFC Championship Game appearances in last 25 years: 9
Packers’ NFC Championship Game appearances in the 25 years before that: 0

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

Ted Thompson wasn’t swayed by public opinion: “If I have to take a public relations shot because I think I’m doing something right for the #Packers, I’m OK with that. If I’m making the Packers better and I’m doing the right thing even if everybody dislikes it, I would still do it

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

Ted Thompson on having no hidden agenda: “I think what you see is what you get. I try to be honest. I was raised that way by my parents. I don’t do things for an ulterior motive. I’m a pretty straightforward guy.” #Packers

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

Ted Thompson on his relatively modest Green Bay home: “It’s not a million-dollar dwelling, that’s for sure. It’s just me. It doesn’t make sense for me to live in a big old hog house.” #Packers

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

Ted Thompson on enjoying small-town Green Bay: “I like where you don’t have to necessarily schedule your day around traffic patterns. I like the people here.” #Packers

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

Ted Thompson on not believing free agency is a cure-all in the NFL: “I won’t name the names, but there are several teams that every year spend a gargantuan amount of money in the off-season. Come the regular season, there’s no appreciable difference in their team.” #Packers

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

Ted Thompson on his role as #Packers GM: “I have an appreciation for the incredibly important position I hold. Obviously it isn’t life and death, but this is very important to a lot of people around the country, so we try to do our job properly and right.”

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

Ted Thompson on being unflappable: “As a player I was that way, I wanted everything to be consistent and steady. I don’t personally believe worrying does you any good anyway. I think it’s a negative.”

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

Ted Thompson on his first meeting with Ron Wolf. “When I got up here, Ron gave me a little speech: ‘This is a six-month trial. If it doesn’t work out, then you leave, we stay, nobody’s feelings are hurt, right?’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s fine.’ Fortunately it worked out.”

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

It’s bittersweet rereading some of the quotes Ted Thompson gave me early in his tenure as #Packers GM. I’ll share a few...

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

Sad news to hear of Ted Thompson’s passing at age 68. He drafted Aaron Rodgers, signed Charles Woodson and built a Super Bowl champion. Always humble and a class act, he never bowed to critics. I fondly recall our annual one-on-one state of the #Packers interviews.

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

(4) What I admired most about Bud Lea was the way he treated people with class and respect, including (then) young journalists like me. He was kind, supportive, funny, an endearing skeptic, a joy to work with. He will be missed.

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

(3) Bud Lea had a great knack for wading through the BS and getting to the heart of the matter. He wasn’t afraid to ask tough questions. He wasn’t a sugar coater. He told it like it was.

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

(2) I felt like I was in the presence of sports journalism royalty sitting next to Bud Lea in the New Orleans Superdome covering Super Bowl XXXI, when the Packers beat the Patriots. It was my first Super Bowl. I think it was Bud’s 30th.

[Mike Vandermause @MikeVandermause]

(1) What a great privilege to have been a colleague of sportswriter Bud Lea, who died today at age 92. He was a veteran columnist when I started on the Milwaukee Sentinel sports desk in 1986, and continued to share his keen insight in Packer Plus when that debuted in 1991.