OPINION: Packers Winning McCarthy Breakup

Not every relationship ends amiably. When two parties invest years in one another only to find themselves growing apart rather than together, frustration can be amplified. That frustration can lead to infighting, and ultimately lead to a messy breakup as we saw a couple years ago with the Packers and former head coach Mike McCarthy.

McCarthy took a year off in 2019 despite interest from rebound candidates like the Cardinals, Jets and Browns. Then at the conclusion of a season of reflection, film study and building up a staff around him, McCarthy took on a new relationship in 2020 with one of the more attractive positions in the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys.

The Packers meanwhile moved on, realizing they weren’t getting any younger and were looking to settle down. They found a new match in Matt LaFleur, a young hotshot offensive guru who looked to be more innovative than Green Bay’s last head coach. In the first two years with LaFleur, Green Bay has found the magic again. Aaron Rodgers is back to playing at an elite level and the Packers as a whole are largely playing back up to their potential as a Super Bowl contender.

McCarthy’s return to the proverbial NFL “dating” scene has not been a similar tale of vindication. The Cowboys, while still loaded with capable talent, have stumbled out of the gates even in an NFC East division playing well below the league average. Dallas still led the division entering Week Seven, but their two victories over an Atlanta team that would dump their head coach and a Giants team still figuring out things with their new head man hardly impressed.

Anonymous quotes reported last week by Jane Slater from inside the Cowboys’ locker room also called the coaching staff “totally unprepared.” Another player said of McCarthy’s hand-picked staff that “they don’t teach” or “have any sense of adjusting on the fly.” A third put it more directly, saying Cowboys coaches “just aren’t good at their jobs.”

While members of the Packers’ organization are most assuredly not petty enough to be rooting for McCarthy’s failure, it must provide a certain sense of vindication in their decision to hear of familiar-sounding struggles arising in Dallas.

While relationships are never a race, it will be intriguing to see whether McCarthy or Green Bay ends up with another ring first.