Mike McCarthy has finally broken his silence. The recently fired Green Bay Packers coach gave an interview to ESPN on his firing, drawing a ton of headlines and putting his name back in the news.
Part of the purpose of the interview was to get his name back out there, defend himself from some of the criticism lobbed his way, and make it clear he planned on coaching in 2020. But there were apparently some unintended consequences, as the interview drew a new round of unflattering reports.
Just one day after the McCarthy interview went live, Tyler Dunne of Bleacher Report posted an expose deep dive into what went wrong in Green Bay under McCarthy. The full piece is well worth the read. One of the most interesting nuggets is the allegation that McCarthy was routinely getting massages while missing team meetings.
“About once a week, a meeting would start up and McCarthy was MIA. Players weren’t quite sure where he was while, for example, an assistant coach would run the team’s final prep on the Saturday before a game. Eventually, word leaked that McCarthy, the one calling plays on game day, was up in his office getting a massage during those meetings.”
The full piece highlights how toxic the culture in Green Bay had become. Members of the front office became disillusioned with McCarthy's work habits, while some players were apparently suspicious of Aaron Rodgers. According to Dunne, one anonymous Packers player wondered whether Rodgers “started that rumor and tried spreading it to anybody that’d listen,” referring to the massages.
No matter what the truth is, it's not a good look for McCarthy. Stories like this certainly aren't going to help his prospects of landing a head coaching job in 2020. It'll be very interesting to see whether McCarthy choose to publicly engage and defend himself from reports like this, or if he'll try and remain silent again and let it all blow over.
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