GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – I guess he was and still is “a highly successful football coach.”
Mike McCarthy returns to a place he called home for 13 years on Sunday, leading the Dallas Cowboys into Lambeau Field against a team he led to it’s last World Championship now over a decade ago. He will become only the 4th former Head Coach of the Packers to coach against them. Curly Lambeau spent two years with the Chicago Cardinals but never had Green Bay on the schedule. His final stop was a two year stint with the Washington Redskins in 1952 and ’53. On October 5 of ’52, he brought Washington to Marquette University Stadium in Milwaukee where the Packers got the better of their franchise founder 35-20 in what would be his only game against his former team. Lindy Infante was fired after four seasons in Green Bay but he resurfaced with the Indianapolis Colts where after one season as offensive coordinator, he became Head Coach in 1996. In 1997, Infante was fired after going 3-13 but one of those three victories came against the defending Super Bowl XXXI Champions on November 16, 1997 when the Colts outgunned the Pack 41-38. That Super Bowl winning coach of course was Mike Holmgren who after seven seasons in Green Bay, resigned to become the Head Coach and General Manager of the Seattle Seahawks in 1999. In his first season with the Seahawks, Holmgren came back to Lambeau on November 1, a rainy, Monday night where his new team got the better of his old one, 27-7. Holmgren lasted nine years in Seattle and he would face the Packers six more times, including a pair of memorable Green Bay playoff victories at Lambeau Field. The Packers would go 5-2 against Holmgren’s Seattle teams.
Congratulating Mike Holmgren’s winning return to Lambeau.
Now, it’s McCarthy’s turn.
The Pittsburgh native spent a year getting to know Green Bay, serving as quarterbacks coach for Ray Rhodes in his one and only season as Head Coach in 1999, the year of Holmgren’s reunion. After stops in New Orleans and San Francisco, a call from the 920 area code was placed to the offensive coordinator of the 49ers in January of 2006. It was Green Bay’s new General Manager Ted Thompson on the line with an offer McCarthy couldn’t refuse. On January 12 of ’06, McCarthy was introduced as the 14th Head Coach in Green Bay Packers history.
McCarthy has the dubious distinction of being the only Head Coach in franchise history to get shut out in his Packer debut, falling to the Chicago Bears at Lambeau 26-0 to kick off the 2006 season.
With an aging but still effective Brett Favre running his offense, the Packers soared to a 13-3 record and hosted the New York Giants in the NFC Championship game in January of 2008. The bitter overtime loss would be the last game Favre would play for Green Bay. The keys were turned over to third year pro Aaron Rodgers and in three short years, McCarthy guided Green Bay all the way back to the top. Earning a wild card spot at 10-6, the Packers won three straight playoff games on the road including a 21-14 victory over the rival Bears in Chicago to capture the George Halas NFC Championship trophy no less. The crowning achievement was the 31-25 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV on February 8 of 2011. That game was played at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, a place he’d become very familiar with in due time.
McCarthy’s Green Bay tenure soured even with excellent squads as playoff disappointments kept coming. A 15-1 Super Bowl defense season in 2011 ended with the stunning loss to the New York Giants at Lambeau Field in the NFC Divisional Playoff. Then came back to back losses to the Colin Kaepernick 49ers in the post-season, in San Francisco in 2012 and back in Green Bay the following year. A return to the conference championship game in 2014 led to perhaps the most stunning exit of them all, the 4th quarter collapse in Seattle and the 28-22 overtime defeat. Another OT ouster in Arizona the following year and in 2016, the famous “run the table” quote from Rodgers also came true if not for the Atlanta Falcons scorching an injury riddled secondary in the NFC Championship.
A broken Rodgers collarbone derailed the 2017 season by a broken relationship between the quarterback and the head coach led the Packers to make the unprecedented move of relieving McCarthy of his duties with four games remaining in the 2018 season.
When things were turning south, McCarthy uttered the now famous, “I’m still a highly successful coach” comment. For the record, he was. The second longest tenured head coach behind only Lambeau, McCarthy put together a record of 125-77-2 in the regular season, he went 10-8 in the post season. That’s the most playoff wins all-time and his 135 total victories while dwarfed by Lambeau’s 212, is still well beyond Vince Lombardi’s 98 and Holmgren’s 84.
Perhaps the most difficult time for McCarthy was the 16 months he took off, while continuing to live in the town of Ledgeview, just south of Green Bay. He met his second wife Jessica while coaching the Packers and two of their children were born in Green Bay. His step-sons were of high school age and I’d often run into McCarthy playing basketball dad in local gyms.
He didn’t stop planning for his next opportunity either. For a several week stretch, he convened his own coaching conclave at his home which featured an impressive film and library office. Former NFL coaches including Jim Haslett spent time together looking for ways to improve their craft, be better coaches for when the next call came.
It eventually did from Jerry Jones who hired McCarthy to take over his beloved Cowboys. Jones had to be impressed with how McCarthy’s Packers hoisted the Lombardi trophy in his own building, and then twice beat his Cowboys in the playoffs.
Challenged by empty stadiums during the pandemic in his first season of 2020, McCarthy lost his starting quarterback, Dak Prescott in year two. He’s bringing his Cowboys to Lambeau this week with a solid 6-2 record, clearly in the playoff hunt.
McCarthy did a couple of sessions with the media on Monday. His usual press conference in Dallas and a conference call with Green Bay and Wisconsin reporters. I took part in the latter and it was nice to chat with him again, even for a single question. I asked him how that 2019 year away helped him digest what happened with the Packers and prepared him for Dallas. He said it was a perfect time to reconnect with his family and eventually start planning for a return to the sidelines, somewhere. While he never agreed with the timing of his firing, he came to the understanding that in the NFL as they say, coaches get hired to get fired.
Having the opportunity to coach two of the most iconic franchises in the league has been a blessing. McCarthy has since moved his family to Texas but still keeps a home here.
He’s hoping for a warm reception from Packer fans on Sunday. He was in the stadium as a Green Bay assistant when Holmgren returned and despite his leaving for greener pastures, was given a friendly welcome back that night. I wouldn’t expect anything less than that for McCarthy.
The coach in his former colors.
He knows there will be a moment when 13 years rushes over him, but this is a business trip after all.
But when pressed a little more about what made his time in Green Bay special, McCarthy unabashedly became emotional.
Keep it together coach, the game’s almost here.
