This probably isn’t going to end well. It’s probably not going to end well for Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers seems to be tired of his shit.
It hasn’t been overtly obvious, but McCarthy and Rodgers now appear to be squabbling through the media.
It started when, after losing to Indianapolis, Rodgers talked about the lack of juice the team had in that game. That’s the same as saying the team wasn’t prepared and whose job is it to have the team prepared? The head coach.
Following that same game, McCarthy said his message to the team was about energy, i.e. you didn’t play with any. McCarthy reversed course the following day and we can assume it had something to do with Rodgers’ comments. That Monday McCarthy said, after watching the file, he thought the energy level was fine.
Obviously, the energy level wasn’t fine, but that’s beside the point.
After Sunday’s loss to Tennessee, Rodgers was again critical.
“There has to be that healthy fear as a player that if you don’t do your job they’ll get rid of you,” Rodgers said. “I think we’ve all got to go back and the urgency’s got to pick up, the focus has got to pick up… we’ve all got to play better, and that starts with me.”
Urgency and focus. Rodgers is clearly saying that it is lacking and whose job is it have the team focused and in the right mindset? The head coach.
Rodgers is also critical of personnel decisions in that statement. Does he think certain players should be benched? It appears so or that at least the threat should be present. That obviously falls on the head coach, as well.
In hindsight then, it was probably predictable that McCarthy followed up with a diatribe of his own on Monday morning. That diatribe began like this.
“Let’s state the facts: I’m a highly successful NFL coach,” McCarthy said. “With that, I’ve never looked at the ride to this point as smooth.”
What, exactly, was the point of saying that? The only thing that comes to mind is when guard Josh Sitton criticized the Packers’ offense last season, calling it predictable. McCarthy fired back through the media that “Josh Sitton needs to play guard.”
This certainly appears to be McCarthy telling Rodgers he needs to play quarterback.
If this rift continues to grow, we can tell you how it’s going to turn out. McCarthy will be gone because Rodgers isn’t going anywhere.