What constitutes success?
We have a simple answer: achieving your goals.
Every year, one of the Green Bay Packers’ goals is to win the Super Bowl. More often than not, they do not achieve that goal.
And yet, here comes Mike McCarthy to tell us the season was a success anyway. He just did that last week during his season-ending news conference.
“We reached a very high level of success this year,” McCarthy said. “I would say our team clearly had a successful season, without a doubt. I don’t know why we’re even questioning that.”
Well, it’s pretty simple. You didn’t achieve all of your goals. So how can you say you were successful?
Or should we view success in varying degrees? Perhaps McCarthy thinks the Packers were kind of successful because they obviously weren’t totally successful.
They certainly achieved some goals. Namely, they won the NFC North and made the playoffs. But we’re not the Minnesota Vikings, are we?
We don’t hang banners for division titles in Green Bay. We don’t celebrate playoff appearances.
We’re not alone in having a different definition of success than McCarthy, either. It appears his own players don’t even agree with his definition.
Left tackle David Bakhtiari had another word for the 2016 season: failure.
Bakhtiari on the season: Failure. Just because we didn't win the Super Bowl. That’s why you play for the Green Bay @Packers.
— ESPN Milwaukee (@ESPNMilwaukee) January 31, 2017
This probably shouldn’t come as a surprise. The definition of success appears to get looser as you move up the ranks in Green Bay.
After all, the team’s president consistently says that making the playoffs is what constitutes success and that puts you at least three wins from achieving the ultimate goal — the one you get measured by when it’s all said and done.
As of now, this Green Bay Packers regime is highly-successful by their definition, but only kind of successful by ours.