After the immaculate intertouchdownception in Seattle, I was all in with many of you who felt the Packers should NOT have come out for the extra point. The call was absurd. It cost us a very valuable conference game. And it was on the heels of 2 other calls that were so bad it seemed we were playing a team owned by the Corleone family. But our coach marched his players back out there, made them stand there for the excruciating 2 second extra point kick – and then he didn’t totally trash the officiating over the course of the next week.
Now make no mistake, it was visually evident McCarthy was angry and frustrated with the refereeing. And his disposition in the press conference after the game should have made it obvious to anyone watching that he was furious. But in the days that followed, Mike McCarthy took the high road – a road that I refused to acknowledge existed in the face of such injustice. McCarthy knew continued bellyaching wouldn’t do any good – even though he surely believes it was the least fortunate call he’s been a part of (he said as much). But today I read something I find incredible: apparently last week, Mike McCarthy called official Wayne Elliott to essentially check in and see how the guy was doing. WHAT? McCarthy did this at a time when the official was still stubbornly unwilling to admit wrongdoing. Suddenly I feel so small. Suddenly I feel like a 10 year old in tears after losing a poorly officiated soccer game, whining incessantly in the car ride home to my father who never once would allow it to be as much the ref’s fault as I insisted it was. As a fan, forgiveness for such a brutally awful call hadn’t even crossed my mind. Yet for McCarthy, within days of such a terrible gaffe, he was calling the official to see how he was doing. Incredible.
After reading about this I had one of those realizations that this is the kind of thing classy, big-hearted human beings do. And this is the kind of thing that probably shouldn’t be just another story in the “Latest News and Rumors” section over at Profootballtalk.com. It should be a major headline everywhere. At the risk of going overboard here, I think this is the kind of thing that should make fans stop and think for a minute about the unique organization we support. Many a pundit and many of you have said that the Packers have handled this whole situation with class. They have – and frankly, the organization almost always does. And we should be grateful for this.
packergeeks 
October 4, 2012 at 2:38 pm |
They have – and frankly, the organization almost always does. And we should be grateful for this.
=—Amen brother
October 4, 2012 at 2:46 pm |
And 56 – if I recall you were one of the first to point this out in the moment.
October 4, 2012 at 3:31 pm |
Classy, yes, and I am proud he is the coach of the Packers.
But also the move of a winner. I often think in these situations of the perennially underachieving Sergio Garcia’s attitude after losing some big golf tournaments. He always made sure to complain about getting bad breaks, bad luck etc… and I always thought that his attitutude was part of his problem. McCarthy’s mindset: that we will move on and not complain about the past, is bound to be picked up by his team and ensure that one loss doesn’t spiral into many losses. Good teams accept that bad things will happen and not get shook by them.
October 4, 2012 at 3:39 pm |
Absolutely fantastic point raymidge. This is what winners do. It’s McCarthy’s way of telling his team that not even horrible officiating can slow this team down. And your Sergio analogy is very accurate. (Huge golf fan -by the way really ticked re the Ryder Cup especially Wisconsin’s own Steve Stricker essentially losing it…) If Sergio would just keep quiet, the pressure on him would eventually go down, and I actually think talent-wise, he could then win multiple majors. He is incredibly talented but he just doesn’t have the mentality to overcome the small stuff. (Dustin Johnson is quite the opposite. He doesn’t carry on after close calls like the controversy at Whistling Straits – he just goes right back out and competes. I think he’ll win a major soon.)
October 5, 2012 at 11:04 am
I watched the Ryder cup collapse in a bar with 5 Irish people all pulling for Europe. Pure torture. i did win about 4 bucks betting against Furyk making any of those putts down the stretch. Terrible job by Love picking a guy who has shown all year that he will fold under pressure (that’s a first guess, not a second guess). Stricker didn’t perform well, but he was a defensible pick at the time given his reputation as a great putter/short game.
Although D. Johnson has performed poorly in some big spots (US Open a few years back), I tend to agree that his general demeanor suggests he will learn from those failures, not feel sorry for himself. I think the same thing about Jason Dufner (Raymond Floyd 2.0?).
To pile on Sergio (don’t like the guy, what can I tell you), I specifically rememebr him after losing the PGA to Paddy Harrington saying something to the effect of “Everyone else gets a good lie, I don’t. Everyone else hits the hole and goes in, mine spins out.” I was stunned that a professional athlete would take such a view.
I coached grade school basketball for a few years when I got back from college. Every year, very early on, I found myself giving a variation on the same speech to the players (and sometimes the parents): “I am pleased to be the one to tell you one of the great truths in life: when you go to high school, you won’t like some of your teachers; when you go to college, you won’t like some of your professors; when you get a job, you won’t like some of your bosses. And when you play sports, you won’t like some of the refs. too bad, you still have to go to class, you still have to go to work, you still have to play the game. Accept it, don’t let it deter you, succeed anyway. No more complaining about refs, ever. its wasted energy.” I won’t say it cut out the complaining completely, but they soon learned I was not going to sympathize with “the refs did it” as an excuse.