Eliot Wolf appreciates his Hall of Fame father’s advice
By GERY WOELFEL
Ron Wolf played an undeniably critical role in the resurgence of the Green Bay Packers in the 1990s as the team’s general manager
Now, Eliot Wolf, Ron’s son, is attempting to rekindle the glory days for the New England Patriots as the team’s executive vice president of player personnel.
While the Wolfs are doing their own things these days, they remain as tight as ever. At the NFL Combine in Indianapolis last month, I asked Eliot how often he talks to his father.
“Every day,’’ he responded immediately and succinctly.
Indeed, during their conversations, the Wolfs will chat about a myriad of subjects and one of them, of course, is football. The two gentlemen simply have a passion for the game.
Eliot has to be obsessed with football, particularly with the constant evolving events of the NFL, but Ron doesn’t. He’s living life large in retirement in Florida and has no contractual obligations to any team.
Yet, to hear Eliot tell it, his 86-year-old father remains more than a tad intrigued with the NFL.
“He stays on top of it,’’ Eliot said of his dad. “He watches the Red Zone every week. I send him the transactions every day.
“He’s got an iPad, so he can watch all our games when he so desires. I don’t know how many games he watched last year but he watches a lot of them.‘’
What Ron saw of Eliot’s Patriots had to encourage him. The Patriots showed concrete signs last season of being an ascending team, thanks in part to Eliot.
Stealing a page from Ron’s playbook, Eliot and the Patriots made it a priority to draft a potential, game-changing quarterback.
Eliot had witnessed how his dad secured an elite quarterback by engineering one of the greatest heists ins in NFL history upon his arrival in Green Bay in 1992.
That’s when Wolf sent shockwaves through the NFL by acquiring a relatively unknown and seldom used backup quarterback from the Atlanta Falcons … for a first-round draft pick. The quarterback Ron Wolf rolled the dice on was none other than Brett Favre.
With Favre leading the way, the Packers became a powerhouse. Favre led the Packers to 11 playoff appearances, seven divisional titles, four NFC Championship games and back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, with the Packers winning one of them.
Eliot Wolf saw first-hand how a top-tier quarterback could dramatically change a team’s fortunes. So, it wasn’t surprising Eliot and the Patriots’ decision-makers made landing a high-grade quarterback a priority in last year’s draft.
With the third overall pick, the Patriots chose Drake Maye, who starred at North Carolina. While no one is about to proclaim Maye the second coming of Favre, he has brought great hope to Patriot Nation with a stellar rookie season.
Maye started 13 games, completed 66.6 percent of his passes with 15 touchdown and 12 interceptions.
While it’s doubtful Ron Wolf had any role in the selection of Maye, Eliot Wolf made it clear his father is an invaluable resource for him.
“Yeah. I do lean on him for advice,’ the 43-year-old Eliot said of his father, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015.” It’s nothing specific to players or strategy. It’s more about leadership, things of that nature. He’s been very helpful.’’
