When the Green Bay Packers betrayed Mike McCarthy by firing him two or three years too late, he took it in stride. He knew there would be another organization he could sucker into hiring him. He was right. I was lucky enough to get an exclusive phone interview with him shortly after the announcement, and I could hear the excitement pouring out of him.

“I can’t wait to let them down for years to come,” said Mike McCarthy of becoming the new Dallas Cowboys Head Coach. It makes sense. This season he’s had to watch his successor, Matt LaFleur, lead the Cheeseheads (damn do I love cheese) to a 13-3 record as a first year Head Coach.

“I was really rooting for him, man. Let me tell ya, it’s hard being a new coach in the National Football League. A lot of folks don’t know this, but I was once a first year Head Coach before I took Green Bay to the Super Bowl, so I’ve been in his shoes.”

“Winning the locker room is so important, so it helps that Freddie is such a nice guy. I don’t know how you could root against Freddie Kitchens,” McCarthy stated, clearly misunderstanding my question about LaFleur. His comments were in reference to the, now fired, first year Head Coach of the Cleveland Browns (Cavaliers? It doesn’t matter).

I later wondered if he did hear me correctly and willfully changed the subject. A skilled tactic, to be sure. That didn’t prevent me from asking him seventeen more times about LaFleur, to no avail.

When asked about Green Bay’s success in 2019, McCarthy tried to hold back his emotions, but clearly couldn’t.

“It’s brutal, ya know? To watch a team I ran into the ground win game after game. It really hurt. I felt like I had so much left to achieve there. I never got to that winless season I was striving for.”

His admission stings, and must leave Packer fans with dreams of what could have been. No matter. Both sides can now officially put it in the past and look to the future.

When asked if he’d heard from his former quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, McCarthy said, “Who? I don’t talk to my family so it’s hard to remember who that is.”

While the Packers have the postseason to attend to, McCarthy has an entire off-season to execute his master plan. What is that plan you ask? I’ll let the man speak for himself.

“I’d certainly like to never win a Super Bowl here. Obviously I wouldn’t mind making it to one or two. I mean that would really give the fans hope and make em’ emotionally drained, I think. The closer we get, the more it hurts, know what I mean?”

“I’d love to coach here for years, frankly, decades to come. I don’t think you take the job working for organization dubbed ‘Texas’s team’ unless you want to stick around and make your mark. They’re really beloved all around the Dallas area specifically.”

Spoken like a man who loves the game.

Published by Seth Dayrich

Founder of WSYS and writer of two motion pictures (Catching Summer, Dan's Humongous Apartment) and a play (The Restaurant Tango). View all posts by Seth Dayrich