What Is Mike McCarthy’s Legacy?

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!”