If you had a chance to pursue your dream job, just how far would you be willing to go?
Would you work for free just to get your foot in the door? Would you pay your own way to events to hopefully get the chance to network? Would you be willing to bet on yourself with no promise it will lead to employment?
Anyone who would take such a risk, you might think, is either foolhardy, or just a fool.
But today we introduce you to Mark Schiefelbein, who as a young college kid from Reedsburg, who took that bet and it paid off with an NFL career that lasted more than 20 years with three different teams, including 18 years with the Green Bay Packers.
He held a front-row seat to witnessing the resurgence of one of the iconic sports franchises in the NFL, played an important role in the Lambeau Field renovation referendum, worked with and alongside Packers legends like Bob Harlan, Ron Wolf and Mike Holmgren, celebrated a Super Bowl win and has a list of contacts on his phone that would qualify him for the Name-Dropper Hall of Fame.
“The thing about Mark, he had an appreciation of not letting his ego get in the way,’’ said Mike Reinfeldt, the former chief financial officer and vice president of administration for the Packers. “He was always out to do what is best for the Packers. That’s a huge thing.”
This amazing journey was all made possible because Mark put some serious thought into a homework assignment he was given in a journalism class at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
So, yes, homework matters.
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It was a typical task as far as journalism classes go; write a profile on someone.
Mark chose Scott Berchtold, the former sports information director at UW-Oshkosh, who, at the time, was working in the Packers public relations office. He had heard Berchtold eventually landed his job with the Packers by first volunteering his time. So it was part assignment, part reconnaissance mission.
“I remember just listening to all the things he did as part of the PR piece and working for a team and I’m like, ‘Wow, I’d really like to work for a pro sports team,’’’ said Mark.
A short time later, he called up Lee Remmel, the long-time public relations director for the Packers and asked if he could meet with him.
“I said, ‘Boy, Mr. Remmel, if you ever need anything, need any volunteers, I’ll be glad to help you out however I can,’’ said Mark.
Remmel took Mark up on his offer and had him start helping out the stats crew on preseason game days.
“A lot of it was grunt work, but who cares?” said Mark. “I was so happy and excited and appreciative of what Lee and Jeff (Blumb, also a member of the PR staff) did for me.”
Mark’s efforts did not go unnoticed, and just prior to his final semester of college, Remmel called him and offered him an internship.
“He said it’s unpaid and I was like, ‘Hey, I don’t … I would have paid them,’’ said Mark.
So Mark put off his last semester of college and, because he already had signed a lease for an apartment, drove from Oshkosh to Green Bay every day.
“I wanted to get up there early and I remember I didn’t have a key, because interns don’t get a key,’’ said Mark. “But my dad always said this, ‘Get there early.’ So I would sit out in the parking lot and when I’d see somebody come to work, I’d go in that way.”
As a final piece to his internship, he had a chance to attend the Super Bowl in New Orleans in 1990. He had to pay for the trip on his own dime, but he decided to go in hopes that Remmel could land him some kind of game-day duties. Remmel did, and Mark ran quotes and other information under the direction of Rick Odioso, who was Tampa Bay’s director of PR.
“A lot of people were saying, ‘Hey, you’re paying your own way, and you’re not getting paid,’’’ said Mark. “I didn’t care. Those were great opportunities.”
When his internship ended, Mark went back and finished school and then, with the help of his late mom typing up his resume, applied to every NFL team. Enter Odioso, who remembered him from the Super Bowl, who hired him in Tampa.
And it was there where he first met Mike Holmgren.
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It was 1992 and Holmgren was the NFL’s flavor of the month, making the rounds interviewing for five head coaching openings in the league, including Tampa Bay.
The personnel department in Tampa asked Mark to pick him up at the airport. Mark showed him around the city, took him to his hotel, picked him up the next day to take him to Buccaneers owner Hugh Culverhouse for the interview, then brought him back to the airport.
“Along the way, we got to talking,’’ said Mark. “He asked me a lot of questions. I told him I had interned with the Packers the year before and then he started asking some more questions. I thought it would be interesting to see what happens.”
What happened was the Packers hired Holmgren, Mark ran into him again a short time later at the Super Bowl in Minneapolis, where Holmgren saw him and they chatted briefly. Then, a short time later, Mark applied for and was hired for an opening in the Packers’ PR department.
“All of a sudden I’m walking down the hall (in the Packers administrative offices) and he sees me,’’ Mark said of Holmgren. “And he kind of looks at me and he goes, ‘Hey, are you following me around?’ And we laughed and laughed.”
Mark then began a steady rise through the Packers organization. He went from PR to community outreach, family programs, corporate travel, administration and department oversight. Part of his duties led him to be the team spokesman, as well as a lobbyist and community speaker, for the franchise-changing Lambeau Field referendum project.
“He’s got great people skills. He’s a great communicator, and I think he had the mindset that no job was too big, no job was too small,’’ said Reinfeldt. “He would take on anything that needed to be taken on. He would do a great job with it and then ask for more. And, as we went along, we gave him more and more because he was a very capable young man.
“He was very persistent and he never quit. You give him something to do and he’s going to find a way to get it done, and you don’t worry about it. It gets done. That’s what I think Mike (Holmgren), (general manager) Ron (Wolf), (team president) Bob (Harlan) and myself all really appreciated about Mark.”
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After Holmgren left the Packers following the 1998 season, he came looking for Mark in 2010 after he was named president of the Cleveland Browns. He hired Mark as the team’s vice president of football operations.
“Some of my buddies said they thought I was going to be like a general manager and drafting guys and I said, ‘Trust me. I’m not involved with that,’’’ said Mark. “Mine was more an administrative role.”
But things did not turn out as hoped. Less than three years after he was hired, Holmgren was gone after the Browns were sold to Jimmy Haslam, who in turn hired Joe Banner as CEO. Like most organizations that undergo a leadership change, the Browns brought in their own people and Mark was out of a job. But there were no regrets.
“One, to be able to work with coach Holmgren again, that was a huge part of it,’’ said Mark. “And the city of Cleveland, it reminded me a lot of Green Bay; the fans are so passionate.”
After some time off, Mark’s next step was to move to Reno, Nevada, to work as an agent for Bob LaMonte, founder and owner of Professional Sports Representation, Inc., and who was friends with Holmgren since their days as high school teachers and was LaMonte’s first client.
PSR represents only coaches and front office personnel, and it offered Mark the chance to reconnect with some of his old colleagues in Green Bay like Andy Reid, Jon Gruden and Doug Pederson, while also getting the chance to work with some of the NFL’s up and comers like Sean McVay and Sean McDermott.
But after nearly five years, Mark left to return to Wisconsin.
“I really enjoyed it, but I wanted to get back a little closer to home,’’ he said. “As anybody knows, that’s a 24/7/365 job, and I loved Reno, but I wanted to get back closer to home. My dad’s 80 years old, so that was the main reason.”
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Mark, if nothing else, is appreciative; of the people who helped him, the people he worked with and the people he spoke to.
Some of his favorite memories include the people of Green Bay, who after the franchise-changing win over defending Super Bowl champion San Francisco in 1995, all turned on their porch lights to welcome the team home after the fire marshal declared no more fans could come to the airport.
“We’re flying over Green Bay and everybody – and I mean everybody, players and coaches – looked out their windows and the whole city of Green Bay was lit up,’’ said Mark. “It gives me goosebumps to this day when I think about that. Everybody was just ‘Wow!'’’
He remembers players coming up to Brett Favre and asking for advice on how to become successful in the NFL, and hearing this:
“He told other people who asked for his advice, get to know the people in the building, and know their first name,’’ said Mark. “I don’t know if I’ve ever met a guy – from a stature standpoint – that was so down to earth. He was nice to everybody. I mean everybody. He was just genuinely a good person.”
And he remembers how Holmgren and Wolf and Harlan and Reinfeldt all took the time to teach him how things needed to be done, and why.
Which brings us back to school, more or less, for an important assignment; this time, from Mark.
“I was always asking questions and I always tell young people that,’’ he said. “Ask questions of your teachers and professors and bosses, people that have been places and done things, and ask, ‘What were you thinking here?’ and ‘How did you do this?’ All of those people I mentioned all took the time to answer those questions for you. It gave me insight on how successful people do things. It was just a privilege.”
Story idea? Contact Mike Woods at 920-256-6321 or at: michael.t.woods1@charter.com