Mike McCarthy Returns Home To Find The Green Bay Packers Are Still A Dysfunctional Mess

On Dec. 2, 2018, Mark Murphy trotted down from his lofty perch at 1265 Lombardi Ave.

Murphy, the Green Bay Packers’ president, had just watched his team lose as a 14-point home favorite to a dreadful Arizona team.

And Murphy had seen enough.

Murphy found head coach Mike McCarthy and told him not to report to work the next day. After 12 ¾ seasons, McCarthy’s time in Titletown was over.

Murphy’s decision came during a season in which McCarthy and quarterback Aaron Rodgers repeatedly clashed, where the team underachieved, and where the Packers looked nothing like a franchise that had been a championship contender for a quarter century.

Sound familiar?

Fast forward to 2022, and the same problems that led to McCarthy’s firing still exist. And interestingly, enough, McCarthy will get to see those problems first-hand when he brings his high-flying Dallas Cowboys (6-2) to Lambeau Field Sunday.

Rodgers is still battling with his head coach — only now it’s Matt LaFleur instead of McCarthy. The offense is completely out of sync and scoring points at a 30-year low.

The defense has underperformed, the special teams have been far from special, and Green Bay is mired in a five-game losing streak for the first time since 2008.

When McCarthy was fired with four weeks left in the 2018 season, the Packers were 4-7-1 — a winning percentage of .375. Today’s Packers are 3-6 — a .333 winning percentage — and playing even worse than McCarthy’s final team.

Things have come full circle in the NFL’s smallest city since McCarthy was shown the door. And as Alanis Morissette once sang, “Isn’t It Ironic …”

“Obviously I think everybody’s very, very, very disappointed,” LaFleur said after Green Bay’s latest clunker, a 15-9 loss in Detroit last Sunday.

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Disappointed is just how McCarthy left Green Bay nearly four years ago.

You can throw in angry, hurt, and irate, too.

And it’s easy to see why, as McCarthy remains one of the most important people in the 100-plus years of this franchise.

Just days after being hired in Green Bay, McCarthy stood before a horde of media members and delivered the following promise.

“I’d like to acknowledge the fans of Green Bay and just to let you know that there will be an unconditional commitment … to bring a World Championship back to Green Bay,” McCarthy said. “I think that’s very important to state that right up front.”

To the surprise of many, McCarthy did just that, leading the Packers to a Super Bowl title in 2010. Green Bay got red hot as a No. 6 seed that season, won its final six games and defeated Pittsburgh, 31-25, in the 45^th Super Bowl.

McCarthy’s bravado that year energized his team and helped them rally from an 8-6 start.

McCarthy labeled his team ‘Nobody’s Underdog’ before they journeyed to New England without Rodgers as 14-point underdogs. With Matt Flynn leading the way, Green Bay almost pulled off the upset of the year, before dropping a 31-27 decision.

McCarthy’s faith in that group, though, won over the locker room and led the Packers on a two-month journey that ended with a Lombardi Trophy.

Four days before the Packers met the Bears in the regular season finale that year, McCarthy said: “We’ll play anybody, anywhere.”

One week later, when McCarthy was discussing the 12 playoff teams he said: “I don’t want to say it’s wide open, but we feel very confident with our chances.”

Shortly before heading to Chicago for the NFC title game McCarthy stated: “We feel we’re a very good road team. … Playing on the road doesn’t bother us at all.”

Then, the night before the 45^th Super Bowl, McCarthy made the remarkably bold move of having his team fitted for Super Bowl rings. The game was nearly 24 hours away from being played, but McCarthy’s celebratory plans were already in full swing.

“I felt the measurement of the rings — the timing of it would be special,” McCarthy said. “It would have a significant effect on our players doing it the night before the game.”

Brash, daring, arrogant. That’s how McCarthy operated down the stretch in one of the most exciting times Green Bay has ever known.

And it helped those Packers find an inner belief that led to a championship.

“Some of it was probably psychological,” former nose tackle Ryan Pickett said. “I’m sure a lot of it was because he believed it. It was all fine with me. It worked, didn’t it?”

Much of what McCarthy touched his first 11 seasons worked like a charm.

He helped resuscitate Brett Favre’s career and turned around the career of Rodgers, who was left for dead after a dreadful first two years in Green Bay.

McCarthy is one of just four coaches in the Super Bowl era to lead his team to the playoffs eight straight years. The others? Only legends like Tom Landry (Dallas), Chuck Noll (Pittsburgh) and Bill Belichick (New England).

McCarthy finished as the second-longest tenured coach in team history, behind only Earl “Curly” Lambeau (1921-’49). McCarthy went 125-77-2 in Green Bay, and when he left his .618 winning percentage ranked fourth in team history behind Vince Lombardi (.754), Mike Holmgren (.670) and Lambeau (.668).

Of course, things ended badly.

Isn’t that why things end in the first place?

At the root was a remarkably strained relationship between McCarthy and Rodgers.

Rodgers had the freedom to change plays at the line of scrimmage for several seasons, but late in McCarthy’s tenure, he took greater liberties than ever.

Shortly before McCarthy was fired, a Sports Illustrated story stated:

“McCarthy might call the same play three times in a game, without the play actually being run as he called it. And if McCarthy calls a play that Rodgers doesn’t like early in the game, that can sour the mood for the rest of the game. Several sources familiar with the inner workings of the organization say that it devolved into a competition over who can call the better play, and both want the credit when things go right.”

The problem is very little went right in 2018. And with Murphy knowing it’s easier to find an innovative head coach than a franchise quarterback, he whacked McCarthy with a month remaining in the season.

McCarthy joined the forgettable Gene Ronzani — who won just 31.5% of his games between 1950-53 — as just the second coach in team history to be fired during the season.

Coincidentally, McCarthy’s firing also came on Rodgers’ birthday. And many believed it was the gift Rodgers wanted all along.

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On Monday, LaFleur was asked if he had any type of relationship with McCarthy.

“I haven’t spent a bunch of time and sat down and drank a beer with him or anything like that,” LaFleur said. “But hopefully one of these days we’ll get an opportunity to do that.”

Wouldn’t they have the stories to share?

Today, LaFleur is living the same life McCarthy did four short years ago, trying to win games while keeping his passive-aggressive quarterback happy.

Right now, LaFleur is 0-for-2.

After Green Bay’s loss to the New York Jets in Week 6, Rodgers questioned LaFleur’s offense, one predicated by pre-snap movement, multiple formations and a wide array of packages.

“I think it’s going to be in our best interests to simplify things for everybody — for the line, for the backs, for the receivers,” Rodgers said. “Just simplify some things and maybe that’ll help us get back on track.”

The next day, LaFleur said: “I don’t know what that means.”

One week later, Rodgers went on the Pat McAfee Show and proclaimed: “Guys who are making too many mistakes shouldn’t be playing. Gotta start cutting some reps, and maybe guys who aren’t playing, give them a chance.”

This wasn’t Rodgers offering an opinion. This was him telling his head coach what to do.

And during last week’s loss in Detroit, Rodgers audibled at the goal line, and on fourth down, tried throwing a pass to left tackle David Bakhtiari — a player with three knee surgeries in the last two years and zero career receptions. Predictably, things didn’t go well and the pass was intercepted.

While LaFleur tried taking the bullets, this wasn’t a play he’d dial up. This was Rodgers trying to take care of his best remaining friend on the team.

Drama, drama, drama.

Who would have thought McCarthy would have less of it in Dallas with a meddling owner like Jerry Jones than he would in sleepy Green Bay? But that’s exactly how things have unfolded in Year 4 of this divorce.

And it’s why Sunday’s ‘Return of the Mac’ will be fascinating to watch unfold.