Could McCarthy Be An Evil Genius? » Brats & Beer

January 26, 2006
posted under: coaching carousel, Mike McCarthy, Packers

Watching the new crew of midshipman coming aboard the floundering SS Green Bay Packers in an effort to raise the keel and get back under steam has been, to say the least, interesting for all of us Packer Backers. I think we went in to this process thinking that our new and improved coaching staff would include one of the rising stars in the league, a Tim Lewis or a Ken Whisenhunt, a name everyone would know, a personality we could all get behind and be proud of. At the very least, I though we’d be able to hang on to our own rising star, Jim Bates. But every step of the way, it seems, has been met with Homer Simpson moments (palm hits forehead, “Doh!”) followed by hours of trying to rationalize this or that decision in an effort to remain positive about the upcoming season.

I’m think now, though, that maybe I’ve missed something. Stepping back and looking at this motley crew, the thing that is remarkable about them is that there is nothing all that remarkable about them: no superstars, no one from a big market championship team, not even a rising college coach. All of them, in fact, have come from declining franchises or teams mired in mediocrity. (Except for new special teams coach Mike Stock who was with the Rams but spent last year recovering from hip replacement surgery.) Now, if they were just random castoffs I’d say that Thompson and McCarthy were just picking bargains from the day-old bin at the NFL supermarket, but each one of McCarthy’s coaching hires has been someone he has worked with or has some other professional connection with while trolling the mostly shallow waters of Kansas City, Green Bay, New Orleans, and San Francisco.

Now it only stands to reason that even within losing organizations there are some good coaches, some talented people overshadowed by the failure of the enterprise, so I’m starting to wonder if McCarthy is cherry picking the best from the worst, so to speak. Maybe I’ve gone crazy, or maybe Ted Thompson snuck into my kitchen last night and replaced my Sunny D with the Magic Kool Aid, but could Mike McCarthy be on to something here?