From the Green Bay Press Gazette:

Jeff Blumb, the longtime public relations director of the Green Bay Packers, has resigned.

Though the Packers are under a hiring freeze during on-going NFL lockout, they will hire a replacement. The hiring freeze applies only to new positions.

“Jeff’s moving on, and we’re going in a different direction,” Packers vice president of administration Jason Wied said. “Jeff and I have talked for a while. He’s been doing this for 22 years, and it’s become a grind for him. We both felt that maybe it was time to look at what else is out there.”

Aaron Popkey, the team’s assistant director of public relations/corporate communications, is filling in for Blumb this week at the NFL annual meetings, which run through tomorrow.

The PR director position is an important one for NFL teams. That person often is the team’s spokesman on important matters.

“We’re going to take some time going forward,” Wied said. “The focus unfortunately is on this labor situation. But over the next four to six weeks we’re going to put together our thoughts on whether we want to hire someone in the same capacity or restructure.”

Good luck to Jeff wherever he goes from here. He was nothing but professional in all his dealings with Cheesehead TV, which was a welcome development for this site when we were starting out.