GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Jed York always admired Ed Policy. Ten years Policy's junior, York wanted to be like Policy when they were kids in Youngstown, Ohio.
They went to the same high school. They went to the same college.
York even lived in the dorm at Notre Dame that Policy had a decade earlier. Not just the same building, Sorin Hall. The exact same room -- No. 103 -- known then as "The Quint" because it was the biggest five-person room on campus.
York and Policy were practically family. York's uncle was Eddie DeBartolo Jr., who owned the San Francisco 49ers from 1977 to 2000. Policy's father, Carmen, worked for the DeBartolo family -- first as its lawyer and eventually as president of the 49ers.
"As a kid I called him Uncle Carmen," York said. "His kids were always around. Ed is 10 years older than me, but he was always somebody who was one of the older kids around and somebody who you looked up to.
"When you're 6 and somebody's 16, it's like they're on a pedestal. And it was Carmen's kid -- and you know how close Carmen and Eddie were."
When it came to the business of the NFL, however, it was York who beat Policy to the top. He has been running his Uncle Eddie's team since 2010, when he was named 49ers CEO. In 2024, he became the team's principal owner.
Policy is about to catch up. Later this month, the 54-year-old will become president and CEO of the Green Bay Packers. For a team without a primary owner, the president and CEO acts as such. It's been more than a year since Policy was named the successor to Mark Murphy, who reached the organization's mandatory retirement age of 70 on July 13.
"He's a perfect fit for Green Bay," York said in an interview with ESPN earlier this year. "I love how the organization works -- where generally you're bringing people up from the inside and you're raising the next generation of talent -- and you see it in Ed. He put in his time, and he's been a great lieutenant for Mark and clearly was the right person for the job."
POLICY GREW UP a Cleveland Browns fan, but he had to quickly change allegiances.
"About two or three weeks after the DeBartolo family bought the [49ers] -- then my dad was a lawyer and they were clients of his -- I remember showing up at the dinner table with a Cleveland Browns jersey," Policy recalled. "And I remember he talked to me somewhat sternly to tell me that's no longer happening in this house. We're a 49ers family going forward."
Policy's father worked for the 49ers from 1981 to 1997, running the team as president the past seven of those years. For much of that time, he commuted between Youngstown -- where Ed and his four siblings were raised -- and the Bay area.
For Ed, it was an early education in the business of football -- especially on car rides with his dad to and from Cardinal Mooney High School.
"So car phones were a [new] thing and I remember my dad driving me to and from school, he was always negotiating contracts," Ed said. "In fact, I remember when I was in the front seat, he was dropping me off at school or something, [and] he was negotiating a then-record contract for Steve Young."
Policy called it "an incredible education."
"We talked about the NFL and the business of the NFL and pro football every night at the dinner table," Ed said. "As I got a little bit older and began to understand some of the business things he was dealing with, I mean, to this day I will tell you I rely on the lessons I've learned from him.
"There was a lot of fun to it -- winning Super Bowls and celebrating Super Bowls and drinking champagne were great memories -- but the things I really rely on now, the lessons, are really watching him struggle through some of the tougher times."
Specifically, he watched his father trade quarterback Joe Montana and move on from legendary coach Bill Walsh.
"I think Ed has a master's degree in NFL management by virtue of what he's seen," Carmen Policy said.
Eventually, Carmen moved to San Francisco full time. It coincided with Ed's enrollment in Stanford Law School.
"He saw and felt so much of what was happening with me, for example, in the process of trading Joe Montana," Carmen said. "We'd go out to dinner in Palo Alto, and there was always a table for us. People treated us like gold. During the process of trading Joe, it was like, 'Well we're pretty full tonight, but we'll try to find a place for you to sit.' I was worried they were spitting in my food.
"We kind of took Ed through it because he was old enough at the time, and he was fascinated by it. He had a pretty good grip on the whole thing while everything was going on, and the good part was he also saw what ultimately wound up happening as a result of the trade. We gave Steve and our veterans another chance to win a Super Bowl in the 1994 season. He saw it all come together with a decent ending."
ED POLICY'S PATH to the Packers after Stanford included stops at law firms in Cleveland and San Francisco before he officially entered the sports world. He spent nine years with the Arena Football League, including a stint as commissioner, and then worked in the NFL office. Murphy then hired him as the Packers' vice president and general counsel in 2012 and promoted him to chief operating officer in 2018.
It wasn't long before he was viewed as a possible successor to Murphy.
"Pretty early on, you could tell," Murphy said. "His title has changed with more responsibility, and he's been instrumental, so he's been right there for everything."
Policy, however, wasn't handed the job. The Packers' executive committee hired the search firm Korn Ferry to vet candidates, and Policy went through the interview process just like the other candidates. Among those considered and interviewed by the Packers executive committee, according to league sources, were Seahawks general manager John Schneider, a Green Bay-area native, former Washington Commanders president Jason Wright and NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller.
While it surprised some that Policy had to go through the interview process and wasn't named as the successor, he did not seem to mind.
"It surprised a lot of people," Carmen said. "But you know what [Ed] told me? He said, 'Dad, the truth of the matter is it was good for everybody. It was almost starting over. [They said] we know your resume, we know you've been here, but prove to us that you're the best guy for the job. It caused me to make myself better and look at it differently.'
"I felt that was a very professional approach. He's so much better than me. I mean that sincerely. He's smarter, he's more disciplined, he's more patient, and patience can be so important at certain times, and I'm really convinced that he's really, really ready."
York believes Ed inherited his father's best qualities but also developed his own approach.
"When you look at his father, who was one of the best executives in NFL history, you can see how that's helped shape Ed," York said. "Ed is a very different personality than his dad. He is so calm, so level-headed, so bright.
"He's a perfect fit for Green Bay, and I love how the organization works, where generally you're bringing people up from the inside and you're raising the next generation of talent. You see it in Ed. He put in his time, and he's been a great lieutenant for Mark and clearly was the right person for the job."
As for Ed's philosophy in that job, his father said Ed "won't be a potted plant when it comes to football but ... once somebody's put in the position to be the general manager or the head coach, they'll be expected to do their job."
That came through in Ed's session with reporters last month, his first since being named as Murphy's successor. Although he threw his support behind GM Brian Gutekunst and coach Matt LaFleur, he did not go so far as to say he would be extending their contracts in the immediate future. But he also noted he does not like lame duck situations, making this season of the utmost importance, considering both the coach and GM have two seasons remaining on their contracts.
His father also believes that -- based on the difficult decisions he had to make, plus the waters that Murphy navigated, specifically with the transition from quarterbacks Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers and Rodgers to Jordan Love -- he has seen enough to prepare him for whatever is to come.
"You need somebody there to be the sounding board if there's a problem that develops, and there will be problems that develop because it's such a highly charged enterprise," Carmen said. "You need somebody to resolve things, and you need an adult, so to speak, when the situation becomes a spat among people that are not so adult-like. I think he's got the kind of relationship with those guys that will allow him to do it, too."
NO ONE IS prouder or more behind Ed than his father. In fact, Carmen began to change his allegiances as soon as Ed joined the Packers in 2013.
Just as Carmen told Ed his Browns jersey was no longer a welcome sight in their home -- although coincidentally Carmen later helped run the Browns when they returned to the NFL in 1999 after the previous incarnation moved to Baltimore -- Carmen had to change his colors.
It caused quite a stir when he showed up for a "Monday Night Football" game in Green Bay.
"Steve Young was there on the ESPN set. So I show up and, I'm not exaggerating, I'm wearing a Green Bay Packers jacket, I've got a gold scarf, the whole Packers outfit," Carmen said. "Steve sees me standing in the audience, and he says, 'What is this?!' He jumps off the platform and he says, 'What are you doing? Have you lost your mind? Do you want me to get a blanket and cover you before anyone else sees you?'
"But this is where Ed and his family belong. Early on, he said, 'This is what I want to be when I grow up.' I mean he was on a real great trajectory to become a partner in a large [law] film and take on a major role, but you could tell that he wanted to do something like this, and he did it. He did it step by step. What really came to fruition was the opportunity in Green Bay."