We have literally dreamed of this day. The day when the Green Bay Packers would fire their inept special teams coach, Shawn Slocum.
January 30, 2015 is the day that our dream came true.
Slocum, who coached the worst special teams unit in the NFL in 2014, is out.
The Packers released a statement from coach Mike McCarthy this afternoon.
“I would like to thank Shawn for all of his contributions over the past nine years,” McCarthy said in a statement. “He was a positive contributor to our success, including helping us win Super Bowl XLV. We wish Shawn, Michelle and their family the best moving forward.”
Blah, blah, blah.
Slocum has long been the weakest link on the Packers coaching staff, just as his units have consistently been a weak link for the Packers. His ultimate undoing was likely the NFC Championship game, where his most egregious error was calling for a field goal block while the Packers were leading Seattle 16-0.
When the Seahawks ran a fake, which they did because of Brad Jones’ tendency to overaggressively go for the block, the Packers were ill prepared and the play resulted in an easy touchdown. That would prove to be the beginning of the end for Green Bay in that game.
This was just one blight on a record filled with miscues, mistakes and fuck ups by Slocum and his units, though.
We’ve gone over this fact time and time again. If Slocum had performed any other job in any other place in the manner he did as special teams coach of the Packers for the past five years, he would have been unemployed a long time ago.
Unfortunately for us, and fortunately for him, Slocum has long been a good friend of McCarthy’s. They started as graduate assistants at Pitt and Slocum has been in Green Bay with McCarthy since he was hired in 2006.
However, you could tell something was up earlier this week at McCarthy’s season-ending press conference. He was asked directly about Slocum and offered no vote of confidence.
Although we shouldn’t have to do this in a performance-based work environment, we’re still going to commend McCarthy for finally doing the right thing and getting rid of someone who wasn’t performing. It must suck to fire one of your friends, but that just goes to show you probably shouldn’t have hired him to begin with.
Regardless, the deed is FINALLY done and we’re ready to celebrate.
First round is on me!