Now PFT has weighed in on this story from jsonline this morning by Don Walker. Read here.
I share Steve’s concerns re this situation and I don’t think Mike Florio’s too far off here either. I’m just not sure myself what Mike Wood could have possibly said to just get canned like this – especially after 22 years. Outside of threatening someone, I just can’t imagine. And this from a guy who works with termination/employment issues daily. Even if he said something about laying an egg – that’s not can-worthy, as it were.
But what strikes me most about this incident is that Mike McCarthy has no problem “holding Mike Wood accountable” for some comments that weren’t offensive and yet he doesn’t just bench Colledge, Clifton, Lang, Barbre when they’re seemingly trying to get Rodgers sacked. Or he doesn’t say a word to Johnny Jolly after Jolly’s bonehead penalty seriously affected the Vikings’ game. Or he doesn’t say a word to AJ Hawk after Hawk’s defensive holding penalty kept a critical Bucs’ drive alive. Or, he doesn’t say a word to the officials when phantom calls at critical times derail our momentum. Or, he doesn’t call out (or simply fire) Shawn Slocum and James Campen for directing respectively, the worst special teams and offensive line units in the NFL. Or he doesn’t take enough ownership of his own errors and how they contribute to our losses.
My one hope right now is because this week has been an emotional one, some of this emotion can carry over to the game on Sunday. This team is fractured. Over time, McCarthy has taken an increasingly compartmentalized approach, due in part to his hyper focus on all things offense. This team needs a central figure to rally around. It needs a head coach who takes an active role in all the big TEAM decisions – not just the offensive ones. Hopefully, the emotion of these last two losses (you know it’s emotional when Driver’s calling people out) coupled with the heightened sense of urgency the players have developed can bring these guys together for the common goal of winning. While my never-ending Packer optimism cringes as I write this – I’d say quite simply, this game is the season.
packergeeks 
November 13, 2009 at 5:46 pm |
Judging from McCarthey’s 11/11 press conference I’d say he pretty much agrees with you Andy.He knows he needs this game.
Evidently in the last day or two the offensive unit held a big meeting where they pretty much called each other out. I’ll be anxious to see if amounts to anything.
Where was the defense during this meeting? I don’t think the offense alone is responsible for our record. Statistically they may be ranked top 5 but that don’t mean squat when yo area 500 ball club. Seems to me they can’t come up with the big stops when we need them. Harris was embarrasing Sunday. Smack talking that rookie QB just to get burned on the next play.
I’m sorry & I hope I’m wrong. I just can’t see us beating Dallas, Balt or Pitt. The rest of the games are a toss up (I would say with the exception of Detroit but now I’m not so sure about that one either).
Green Bay is quickly becoming the laughing stock of the league & crap like this with Woods & McCarthey isn’t helpng.
November 13, 2009 at 6:35 pm |
Wow, whether or not MM fired him or Wood made a comment, blah blah blah…this whole thing is going to make the Pack look bad.
GB has been one of the most respected organizations in professional sports for a long time (I’d venture a guess to say most of that was due to Bob Harlan) and now in a few weeks our beloved team is starting to look like a joke.
Someone (hello Murphy!) needs to grab the reins and straighten things out.
November 13, 2009 at 6:49 pm |
What does Mark Murphy do? We now know that MM is in charge of everything, even the dang grounds crew. TT is in charge of the don’t ever saying anything of substance department, so what is left of Mark Murphy? Other than being in charge of the use of the word Rubicon within the fron office, I can’t figure it out. May be he’s in charge of picking up coffee on the way to the office.
November 13, 2009 at 7:31 pm |
Does anyone think Holmgren as GM and maybe Gruden as HC is a possibility–or even a good idea?
November 16, 2009 at 1:30 am |
No – and Holmgren wasnt a good GM. He was stripped of that position in Seattle.
November 13, 2009 at 8:25 pm |
I would love it 56Coop, I’m just not sure it could happen.
November 13, 2009 at 8:48 pm |
Hmmm..I guess keeping this guy “wasn’t an option” and TPTB decided he shouldn’t be “on their train” for conduct obviously unbecoming an employee of the Sacred Tundra.
Did MM actually think that asking for the guy’s name would not lead to at worst, his firing, or at least a reprimand?
What a farce.
November 13, 2009 at 9:54 pm |
I heard rumors that Homgren is bound for Cleveland in some capacity and that he is itching to get back into the game. Cowher and Gruden will be in high demand with some of the crappy teams out there this year. I hold off judgement on our team until kickoff on Sunday.
As Andy noted and I agree, this is the season on Sunday.
November 14, 2009 at 9:39 am |
“this is the season on Sunday”
Sorry guys, unless they win out starting on Sunday, I am calling this season a disappointment.
November 14, 2009 at 10:38 am |
This firing of the grounds crew makes McCarthy and the whole Packer organization look petty. What a bunch of thin-skinned idiots to think that firing a member of the grounds crew will right the ship they’ve taken down through their own incompetetence. This is not the team nor the organization I grew up to love and be proud of. I want my team back!!!!
November 14, 2009 at 11:11 am |
A couple of points:
Where did McCarthy say that he would have no problem holding Wood accountable? I read the Q&A posted on the Journal’s Packers Blog, and didn’t see it there. Is it somewhere else that I missed? That would seem to be a pretty big component of your argument, which seems to be that McCarthy has no trouble holding a maintenance guy accountable, but refused to do the same regarding performance on the field.
Of course, perhaps firing Wood allows McCarthy to truthfully claim that “we are holding people in this building responsible for their actions. . . . .”
I’m not in the personnel field, but I am in the legal field, and I can say that firing someone for such a comment seems kind of shaky. So perhaps something more was involved that we do not yet know about. Certainly there is a discrepancy between what McCarthy says happened and what Wood says happened. I’d like to think someone in the organization thought the whole thing through before any action was taken, but I’ve been in the business world too long to believe that it couldn’t happen otherwise.
Joe raises an interesting point- this really doesn’t seem like a McCarthy matter in the first place. And maybe he didn’t ask for Wood’s firing; perhaps instead it was Ted Eisenreich acting on his own initiative after seeing a possibly tense interaction between Wood and McCarthy. But where is Murphy? While he would not likely be involved in most hiring and firing decisions, particularly those involving the maintenance staff, I don’t think the Packer organization is so big that he would not at least have been appraised of what was going on. And he’s also in a position to set it right, if such an action were deemed necessary. Yet we’ve heard nothing from him, even though it is something more clearly in his area than McCarthy’s.
November 14, 2009 at 1:15 pm |
Joe–Get out your disappointment wrapping paper. They ain’t winning out.
November 14, 2009 at 3:16 pm |
This incident, like other public relations miscues over the last 18 months – most notably the manner in which the August 2008 back and forth with Favre was handled – demonstrates that this current management group is prideful, rigid and just clumsy.
Do they have any sense for how unattractive and disappointing they appear to fans?
I know the franchise’s board is merely advisory, but you cannot help but wonder if any of its members are shaking their heads in dismay.
November 14, 2009 at 4:03 pm |
Ah crap–we’ve just been cursed. PFT is picking the Pack 17-16. Well, that about does it then.
November 15, 2009 at 12:00 pm |
56-
Holmgren won’t be back…that train left the station. I wonder if a big name coach would want to come to GB with a GM whose job may be tenuous? Assuming of course TT gets to keep his job and MM is shown the door at the end of the season.
November 15, 2009 at 4:57 pm |
Good question Scott–if MM goes & TT stays we’re doomed.