An Overdue Apology to Mike McCarthy

Several editions ago we published an article that lambasted Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy. In that piece we were openly critical of Coach McCarthy’s play calling and direction of the team. We also found many things about Coach McCarthy we liked and published that as well.

In the instantaneous world of technology and information the immediacy available is sometimes an instrument of the devil. We are here to right an injustice, one of our own creation.

We were wrong.

No excuses will be offered; we will step up to the plate and very clearly retract our previously stated position and openly apologize to Coach McCarthy. We do this not because the Packers have fared well of late, we do this for but one simple reason.

We were wrong. Wrong, reckless, and premature.

The talking heads of professional sports are an arrogant lot. Those that write about the games people play have the mistaken belief that they hold all the answers. In the sterile environment of a room with a keyboard sportswriters are immune to bad judgment and quick as a hiccup decisions that need to be made. A screw up? Hit spell check. Flub up a line?  Cut it, paste it, and redo it. Stats incorrect? Research it and rewrite it.

But those luxuries come with the knowledge there aren’t 70,000 sets of eyes on us or 900 lbs of raw rage and fury closing in on us as we pound out a piece. How would the 4^th estate handle being booed for a mundane article? What if readers had a chance to call in a talk show?

As Jim Mora, the King of Really Great Sound bytes once said of the writers assembled at his feet who were questioning him on an in game play “…You think you know (about football), but you don’t. You think you do, but you don’t know. You. Don’t. Know….”

We’re going to gulp hard and man up here.

Jim Mora is right.

We don’t have a damn clue as to what really goes on out there. Yeah, we THINK we do, and it is great fun to speculate, but we really don’t. When it comes to the reality of pro sports we don’t know nuthin’.

In recent history we have hauled Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy over the coals for what we perceive to be his shortcomings. The funny thing about perception is how it colors the truth. A perception becomes reality the minute one believe is to be so. The truth is irrelevant. We believe it to be so, ergo it is so. The truth is a casualty of what we want to believe.

In other words, if you think you’re fat, you are. If you think you’re a genius, you are. All evidence to the contrary. And if you think you know pro sports, you do.

You don’t.

There is no possible way short of retiring from a major professional sports league to know exactly what it is like. We project and speculate and try to interject ourselves into the shoes of the men we love to watch play like starry eyed 8 year olds. It is one thing to watch Donald Driver shuck and juke his man out of his jockstrap and it is altogether another thing to be able to do it.

We can’t.

That’s why we watch, and do what we do best – write about it.

Truth be told the minute a 225lb. safety closed in on us we would probably dissolve internally so fast mom would need a second or third diaper for us. And if we had to take a hit from one of the 300+ lb behemoths that roam the gridiron chances are real high we’d be taking our meals through a straw for several weeks. We couldn’t play the game for all the millions that these guys make even if we wanted to.

And we, in our self-grandizing arrogance are so presuptuous that we believe that by virtue of having digested every Packers game since the days of Vince Lombardi that we know more than the men  charged with the resposnsibility of actually running the team. In one of the most outrageous statements ever made a conservative commentator named Tucker Carlson, who was recently subbing on Fox News' "Hannity" said that Eagles QB Michael Vick "...should have received the death penaly for killing dogs..."


There is a point to all this. When those that report of these events start taking such extreme, foolish and dangerous positions it is time for all to take a step back and do a gut check. It begs the question is there a point where freedom of the press is no longer a valid reson for irresponsibility?


To be critical of MM’s performance is to interject too much of our own selfish desires into the equation. We want the Packers to win and are immensely disappointed when they don’t. In the immature and pointless exercise of blame and pity McCarthy becomes a very convenient scapegoat.


In criticizing McCarthy’s early performance we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge his steady hand and vastly improved coaching, especially during the Packers win or go home stretch run. McCarthy has pushed all the right buttons and the packers have responded.

We have railed against those that have second guessed and Monday Morning Quarterbacked other players from other teams and yet have committed the self same infraction.

Too often we judge others on their actions and ourselves on our intent.

There is a damn good reason sportswriters, talking heads, commentators and web pundits stay a good distance away from the field. We simply don’t belong there.


The function of a writer is to color within the lines and add something everyone can keep after a game. Part of the fun of sports is the ability to read about it after the fact. Discussing it over the water cooler the next day is a time honored tradition. Fathers and sons find it oft times difficult to communicate, but sports magically manages to transcend that gap. Sports are not just a diversion but a culture and a community. It brings people together. After the horror of 9/11 to simply be able to turn on a ballgame was a relief. It brought not only people but a country together.

As Packer fans we can piss and moan at Bears fans or Vikings fans. But we are neither Packers or Bears or Vikings. We are fans. Our common denominator is the teams for which we cheer.

And we recognize that we have a minute role in the process.

Our function is to make the games entertaining. We exist to give the fan a voice.

In this mea culpa we humbly offer this caveat. Mike McCarthy deserves a vote of confidence. While we can question things that happen we respect the job he has done with the Packers. The Pack is always in the game and that cannot be understated. And to have done so missing so many weapons is to let the expectation of winning a Super Bowl blemish a season that was by any definition daunting.

To criticize is to sink to the lowest common denominator and become reactionary to the ebb and flow of a season, wins and losses. One win does not a great coach make nor should one loss make him the Village Idiot.

Green Bay is the only team that was not blown out of any game. Injuries played an enormous factor in the Packs record this year. Ted Thompson found players and MM kept them in the ballgame. Like anyone who is human there are things he can do to improve. We hope he does. We would like nothing more than to see another Lombardi-like dynasty run for the next 10 years. It is with great anticipation we look forward to next year as well.

Coach? We apologize.