Next Sunday, Mike McCarthy will be back to coach a game in Green Bay for the first time since Dec. 2, 2018. That day, a melancholic 20-17 loss to a terrible Arizona Cardinals team led by Josh Rosen ended McCarthy’s 13-season tenure as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Three years later, it’s important to think beyond that day and McCarthy’s final stretch in Green Bay because what he did for the franchise is much bigger. And he deserves respect and love for those reasons.
McCarthy arrived in Green Bay in 2006, one year after the Packers went 4-12 with a declining Brett Favre. It was also less than one year removed from the San Francisco 49ers’ decision to draft Alex Smith over Aaron Rodgers. McCarthy was the offensive coordinator in San Francisco that season. In the following six years, McCarthy transformed the Packers into one of the top teams in the league.
In 2007, Favre had a spectacular final year in Green Bay. That was before all the drama following his multiple retirement threats, a trade to the New York Jets, and later signing with the archrival Minnesota Vikings.
If you think Aaron Rodgers is mainly responsible for Green Bay’s success after he took over for Favre, I must show how McCarthy was imperative to Rodgers’ success in the NFL. Take a look at some highlights (or lowlights) during the 2005 preseason for the rookie quarterback for further proof.
McCarthy’s offensive ideas and his leadership style allowed the Packers to be the most promising team between the end of the 2000s and the start of the 2010s. One Super Bowl win might look like less than what that version of the Packers could have achieved, but it’s too important of an accomplishment to be diminished.
The final years of McCarthy’s tenure were not as glamorous, and the fact that the Packers moved on was justifiable. Things never got back on track after the NFC Championship in Seattle in 2014. But, if you look back, McCarthy deserves much more respect for what went right and less blame for what went wrong because several things were also Rodgers’ responsibilities. And the quarterback himself knows how important the coach was for his career.
“I think time always can be a great healer, not that there needed to be a lot of healing in our relationship,” Rodgers said in an interview with The Athletic.
“There was always so much love. The things I always appreciated about Mike was I could come to him with an issue, or he could call me up to his office with an issue, and we could have really, really direct conversations. And it could be voices raised, or it could be super calm or anywhere in between, but always at the end of it, every single time, there was always a hug, an ‘I love you. I appreciate you. Thanks for this conversation.’ And it taught me a lot about conflict management dealing with Mike, and not to say we had conflict all the time because that wasn’t the case, but I always appreciated the way we were able to talk to each other because it was direct and it always ended on a high note.”
Even the offensive scheme, which became a frequent joke around NFL Twitter because of its stagnation, deserves shared blame. After two MVP seasons under Matt LaFleur’s scheme, Rodgers has shown a preference for a stagnant offense this year, without many motions or shifts, to allow him to read the defense properly. As McCarthy always said, his main goal was to let the quarterback play well. And that was what he was trying to do, successfully or not, throughout his time in Wisconsin.
It’s natural that many fans won’t be as happy to have McCarthy back at Lambeau. After all, he is now the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. But it’s possible to compartmentalize. To support your own team, and at the same time, respect and value what an important man did in the franchise’s history.
“It’s the people you always look forward to seeing,” McCarthy said this week when asked about his return to Lambeau Field.
Sometimes, this is bigger than one football game.
