In real life, the dead person doesn't greet you at the door to the funeral parlor and lead you around at the visitation.
Welcome to the world of pro sports where the freshly gone re-animate shortly after their demise to give you their version of the after-life, as well as events that led to their demise.
Former Packers head coach Mike McCarthy spoke this week to ESPN's Rob Demovsky from a pigksin bunker some football interest dropped into his man cave, one that apparently allows him to gorge on film dating back to the Red Grange era. McCarthy may be dead professionally to Packers management but it's obvious he's keeping current in hopes of a second act somewhere.
It's not McCarthy's present that had fans breathlessly waiting for Demovsky's missive–it's the past, especially how things ended between a coach who logged 13 mostly-successful seasons in Titletown and management that provided him such an inglorious mid-season dismount in 2018. McCarthy makes no bones about how it was handled (“It couldn't have been handled any worse”) and suggests that the family approach he used when dealing with dismissal wasn't employed when it was his turn to hit the bricks.
McCarthy wasn't afraid to pull the trigger when it came to his own staff, reciting the line about “the standard of the Green Bay Packers is to win world championships” when parting ways with two assistants after what turned out to be his last full year at the helm. Should team president Mark Murphy perhaps waited for Lambeau Field to empty after the soul-crushing loss to the Cardinals before calling McCarthy in to apply the coup de grace? Would it have softened the blow had he shown up, hat in hand on the coach's front door that night with a 12 pack of Rahr's and a bag of chips?
Fact is, allowing McCarthy to twist in the wind after the Arizona loss wouldn't have done anyone any good. Four games remained, four chances for fans home and away to speculate on the coach's future, a few hope opportunities for them to create nasty signs and chant ugly things. How distasteful would THAT have been? Pro football is results-driven and the fact was that McCarthy's grasp on the Lombardi Avenue proceedings was on the skids starting week four when quarterback Aaron Rodgers dumped all over the head coach following a 22-0 win over the Bills, questioning McCarthy's offensive accumen out loud to a post-game news conference. It was that act of disrespect that paved the way, that fit of pique that showed Murphy wasn't the only one who forgot what “family” means to the Packers organization.
McCarthy largely let that ugliness slide in his chat with Demovsky, merely alluding to “frustrations” in discussing his relationship with his quarterback over the years. Perhaps time taught him the wisdom of not getting into a peeing match with the state's most beloved athlete, one who sees every slight as a personal affront, who sports a chip on his shoulder the size of Winnebago. Maybe that's what Rodgers needs to self-motivate and when it works, fans love it. Fact is, Green Bay has scuffled his last couple of seasons at quarterback. Columnist Bob McGinn pointed out last November the Pack's 25-22-1 record over the past three seasons of the Rodgers era, a less-than-stellar mark he says Rodgers owns as much as anyone else in the organization.Â
None of that matters now. OTA's are days away and Rodgers is now Matt LaFleur's concern. Will he be able to coax the best out of an accomplished and well-compensated QB? How will he function amid Murphy's recently reconfigured organizational chart? Who will the team draft in two weeks or so, and how well will the brain trust fill the holes that dot the depth chart on both sides of the ball?
McCarthy's chat this week is a diversion, a look back at a brief bit of 2018 ugliness. The future looms, loud and clear. Were the last two seasons a blip, and what can be said of the patience of Packers fans who are spoiled as none other in franchise history, accustomed to automatic playoff berths and annual Super Bowl talk? How long with the least be for LaFleur?Â
Nice hearing from you, Mike, and all the best. The man cave looks boss. You said the right things on the way out, and chances are you'll be on an NFL sideline again soon.Â
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