At a time when we should be aglow about the fantastic start the Brewers are off to and the fact the Bucks nailed down home-court through the upcoming NBA playoffs, the topic du juour at Wisconsin watering holes is–what else?–the Packers.
First came Rob Demovsky's ESPN.com piece in which he got deposed coach Mike McCarthy to speak for the first time since his abrupt dismissal. That held our mutual interest for about 48 hours, replaced in the Titletown conciousness by Tyler Dunne's deeper dive into all things that allegedly ailed Green Bay, issues that the former beat writer says date back to McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers' very first days. Of that relationship, McCarthy would admit only to “frustrations” when he spoke negatively about his old QB to Demovsky, and even then, it was just once. Most of what McCarthy had to say was positive, as he is wont to go.
The Dunne piece isn't nearly as kind.Â
By now most every fan has read it at least once, heard hours of sports talk radio disssecting it and discussed it among fellow followers. We all have our takes. McCarthy bashers will relish the apparent disregard Rodgers had for his coach in genearl and his play-calling in particular. Those hating on Rodgers–yes, some do–will enjoy the portrayal of the QB as intelligent to the point of arrogant, a disruptive locker room force hell bent on imposing his will even if it meant confusing his young receiving corps to the point of mutiny. Ted Thompson is convicted in the Dunne piece as ineffective and unwilling to change, thinking that the best kind of roster is a young, cheap one regardless of obvious needs. And Mark Murphy–in the role of “upper management”–is oblivious to what's going on around him until the loss to the Cardinals forces his hand, the messy dismissal of McCarthy his apparent epiphany as to what was roiling inside the Packers locker room.
Don't question Dunne's techniques–the use of unnamed sources and such–because that is how you get folks to talk, people who want to keep their gigs after the article hits the mainstream. And hail Dunne for getting as many people to talk on the record as he did. Sure, Jermichael Finley is an eager Packers-basher-in waiting but…Ryan Grant?!?Â
No one in this piece looks good. McCarthy haters never liked his play calling but how can we really know just how bad it was if Rodgers was changing the plays, what, a quarter to a third of the time? Yes, the former coach can be taken to task for not changing over the years, for thinking that what worked with the 2008 roster was going to click again a decade later. If he was, indeed, “checked out” as some players claim well, that is sorry news to hear as well.Â
Rodgers is beloved by the same fans who were keying his car when McCarthy chose him over Brett Favre after the NFC Championship game flame out at frosty Lambeau the winter previous. And that's what sticks out in reading the Dunne piece. Rodgers felt SO slighted by McCarthy's favoring of Alex Smith when at San Francisco that he couldn't get over himself when the two found themselves side-by-each in Green Bay, the Packers brass pulling Rodgers out of the draft night green room after a four hour embarassment. Not even when McCarthy jettisoned the legendary Favre and installed Rodgers as his number one. No, Rodgers couldn't let that initial slight go away. Granted, the greats fuel themselves on grudges but the smartest ones know when to let go. Rodgers couldn't, and it apparently infected the place for years moving forward.
That Thompon proved to be the “Ted” we fans suspected him of being is no surprise. What does give one pause is the fact that there apparently was no adult in the room to see what was going on beyond the walls. Mark Murphy's trust was in Ted and in those down to the 53rd man on the roster to do things the right way, without rancor. Its baked into the Packers community-owned DNA, and it may be part of what's wrong in Green Bay. Think a strong owner (Jerry Jones) wouldn't have smelled out the various agendas in play and called a come-to-Jesus meeting at which grievances would be aired and heads rolled, if need be? The same set-up contributed to the Pack's “Gory Years” of the post-Lombardi era where an ineffective Executive Committee of laypeople was allowed to legislate the team's gridiron fortunes. It changed only when Bob Harlan put football people in position to make gridiron decisions. Perhaps Dunne's article explains why Murphy was so compelled to inject himself into the football operation with his most recent re-organization.
There's something for everyone to glom onto in Dunne's article, and the debate raged on fast and furious in the days after the piece came out. Fact is, OTA's start soon and the new head coach, Matt LeFleuer will be center stage. He'll be asked about what went on before, and will probably give shrugs before muttering something about “a new era.” Rodgers will bristle and buck and deny before turning everyone's atttention to 2019, as he should. The past can't be changed.Â
And that's too bad. This has been a very, very good football team since the early 1990's. Consistency was a Packers hallmark, along with competitiveness that gave a generation of fans the feeling that the postseason is a birthright. Green Bay won but one Super Bowl on the McCarthy watch and the case can be made that they squandered more. Again, we can't change any of that. The McCarthy era will be seen as one of expectations met in terms of playoff appearances but opportunities lost in terms of hardware.
The time is now to see what Rodgers has left in the tank, what the draft brings and what LeFleuer can do to change the Packers culture. Was it as bad as Dunne describes? Only those in the locker room before he got there know . And now, it's up to him change it for the better.
In the erstwhile, there's a Milwaukee Bucks playoff run to anticipate and a Brewers start that's beyond expectations. Let the spotlight return to where it should be.
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