This will probably be debated for some time. What is Mike McCarthy’s legacy with the Green Bay Packers?
Was he Vince Lombardi? No. Was he Curly Lambeau? Absolutely not. Was he The Walrus? Probably not, but he’s close.
Both The Walrus and McCarthy won one Super Bowl. Of course, The Walrus guided the Packers to two and then Seattle to another one, so The Walrus has to be considered the better coach.
Both guys already have streets named after them in Green Bay. That’s what you get for bringing a title to Titletown.
I guess the stats would say McCarthy is the fourth-best coach in Packers history. He was 125-77-2. That’s a .618 winning percentage. Regular season. McCarthy was 10-8 in the playoffs. And there’s that Super Bowl win.
On the other hand, and I will just say it. We are all entitled pricks when it comes to the Packers. One title in 13 years!?
Fuck that noise.
McCarthy went to three NFC title games outside of the Super Bowl year. So 1-for-4 there. Got totally outcoached in at least two of those. I’ve always maintained that he had that one in Seattle. Other muckety-mucks mucked it up. I could go down that list, but I don’t want to. But I’ve got at least three clowns higher than McCarthy on the list.
Anyway, I guess if you’re the fourth-best coach in Packers history, that’s pretty good.
Certainly keeps you employed for 13 years.
The other thing we’ve always said about McCarthy’s legacy is this.
Injuries.
I don’t know if other teams constantly have players that pull their goddam hamstring, but I know McCarthy’s teams did.
Always.
Without fail.
You could point to a guy and say, “What’s his injury?” If you said “hamstring” you’d be right 70 percent of the time and those are good betting odds.
It wasn’t just that, though. The Packers had 16 players go to injured reserve in 2010, the year they won it. I mean, good coaching job Mike, but why are guys always injured? And they were always injured. It was a narrative of every season. Maybe less so this season than any under the McCarthy tenure, which is ironic.
McCarthy could never figure that out though.
And I think that’s where we’ll leave it. Aaron Rodgers’ faltering allegiance doesn’t factor into the McCarthy legacy. Things fell apart with Curly Lambeau and the Packers. The whole wasting-Aaron-Rodgers-prime narrative doesn’t factor in. That was Ted Thompson for not surrounding Rodgers with enough talent.
When I get old and someone asks me about Mike McCarthy, I’m going to first shake my head and say, “God, I’ve never seen so many guys get injured in my life.” And then I’m going to say, “He coached that one team the fuck up, though!”
8 Comments
Mike McCarthy was Marty Schottenheimer with 2010 being about the only difference.
Could some body in the sports media please rank him against all his NFL head coach contemporaries?
McCarthy is 100% responsible for the second half of that Seattle NFC title game loss. I will never forgive him for that. That’s always the first thing I think of with him. I cant believe he didn’t get fired after that game.
“I had a pre game run attempt number i wanted to achieve”…”to hell with real game conditions, i had a better plan” – McCarthy
“I didn’t know he (Clay) was out.” – McCarthy
Grab a sheet of paper. Title it Mike McCarthy….
Make two columns, Pro’s and Con’s, start writing….
Which list is longer?
Naming a street after MM was the kiss of death they . They,we all got too drunk after the Superbowl win Thompson and McCarthy thought they could do no wrong, and draft and develop their way into history. Problem was Collins got hurt, Woodson and the WRs got old, nothing was ever done to replace any of them.
I don’t think McCarthy could have won anything more in Green Bay because “he lost the team”, as they say.
That being said, I don’t think the Packers will do any better because it will be difficult to find a good coach. If the Packers didn’t have Rodgers, the thing to do would be to hire a hot young coordinator in typical Packers fashion. The problem is would Rodgers respect a coach he basically would have to train to be head coach?
I would not be surprised to see McCarthy do really well elsewhere like Cleveland while the Packer will struggle to make the playoffs.
Yep, as much as I dislike Buffoon, TT and M Murphy really fucked up this team. In doing so, they created the Rodgers that we now have . . . Buffoon would have slugged along getting to the playoffs and possibly even winning another SB if it was not for TT and M. Murphy. Let’s face it, if the Packers had an average GM and a better (more AWARE) President, Rodgers could have done the rest in spite of the Buffoon.