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Suddenly, it was January 2000 again, and the 45-year-old Green Bay Packers coach was 37 and at a critical juncture of his NFL coaching career. Having just been fired as the Packers’ quarterbacks coach — along with the rest of Ray Rhodes’ one-and-done staff — hours after the Jan. 2 regular-season finale, he’d almost instantly been offered a similar job with the New Orleans Saints by first-year coach Jim Haslett.
Not wanting to waste any time getting McCarthy locked up — more on that in a moment — Haslett had FedEx’ed a contract to McCarthy just days after the staff’s firing. And now, McCarthy was spending every night at the sleepy strip mall at the corner of Cormier and Oneida.
Sitting in a cramped cubicle while temperatures plummeted and snow fell outside, McCarthy spent night after night putting together his offensive philosophy, game plans, meeting schedules and his resume, hoping to convince Haslett that he could be more than just the Saints’ quarterbacks coach, but also run their offense.
“You know how there’s certain things you remember?” McCarthy said after practice one day last week, while preparing for Monday night’s game between his Packers and the Saints franchise that gave him his biggest coaching break. “I had actually signed the contract and committed to being the quarterbacks (coach), but I didn’t have to go to New Orleans for like a week. And Jim Haslett (had) said, ‘If you commit to me as the quarterbacks coach, I’ll give you a legitimate opportunity to interview as the coordinator.’
“I didn’t have a computer at the house, and I thought, ‘I have to get ready for this coordinator’s job (interview).’ So Kinko’s down on Oneida, I was there every night, probably 5 o’clock ’til 8, 9, 10 o’clock. And still today, every time I drive by there, I think of that.”
Lessons learned
McCarthy went to New Orleans ultra-prepared and super-excited — “I think when I left here, it was 25 below zero (wind chill), and I get off the plane and it’s 75 degrees in New Orleans,” he said — but unsure of what to expect.
What he wound up getting was a host of lessons he still applies today, in his third year as the Packers’ boss:
Responsibility. By going to work for a head coach with a defensive background — come to think of it, McCarthy has never worked under a fellow offensive-oriented coach — McCarthy was essentially the head coach on offense. With it came great responsibility that would serve him well later in his career.
“I think it’s the best training ground for any coordinator, to operate in that environment,” McCarthy said. “Because you’re critiqued harder, (and) you’re given more leeway. There was a lot of trust there.”
Structure. While Haslett surrounded him with other defensive masterminds (assistant head coach Rick Venturi, defensive coordinator Ron Zook), McCarthy knew when he got the Packers job in January 2006 that he needed to balance out his offensive expertise with more defensive-minded help. After he was unable to convince Jim Bates to stay on as defensive coordinator, McCarthy hired his top lieutenant, Bob Sanders, and hired linebackers coach Winston Moss, who was promoted to assistant head coach a year later.
“That’s why we’re structured the way we are,” McCarthy said. “The one thing I did not want to have, I didn’t want to be the head coach of a football team that wasn’t any good on offense. I just thought, ‘(General manager) Ted Thompson hired me here for a reason — my background at quarterback and my background in offensive football.’ ”
Staff synergy. Haslett had McCarthy sit in on position-coach interviews — actually, McCarthy sat in on a few offensive coordinator interviews, too, which he found “uncomfortable” — and McCarthy did the same in Green Bay, knowing how important it was that the staff be able to work together.
“It’s about fit,” McCarthy said. “There’s a lot of good coaches, but if they don’t fit together, that’s where your issues come.”
Connecting with players. That from-the-heart approach plays well with McCarthy’s charges, although he still makes it clear that he’s the boss. He smoothed over some difficult moments with veteran cornerback Charles Woodson early in his tenure, and players seem to genuinely enjoy playing for him — even those who seem difficult.
“I knew he got along with quarterbacks really well — he’d go golfing with Rich Gannon (in Kansas City), he was good (in Green Bay) with Brett (Favre) — but when I hired him, I didn’t know that he would fit in,” Haslett said. “He had some guys to deal with — the Joe Horns, the Willie Jacksons — that were hard to handle, but Mike did a great job with those guys. And there was a trickle-down effect.”
Up-front honesty. What players have said they appreciate most is that McCarthy is a straight-shooter with them, and Moss said he saw that in McCarthy in New Orleans, too.
“Exactly what he preached as a coordinator, that’s what he’s carried over as a head coach,” Moss said. “And the key is, it’s real. Whatever he talks about, it’s real. He’s always talked about improving. If there was anything lacking, he addressed it, got it out front, didn’t sugarcoat it, didn’t run away from it. He confronted it. And we’ve had that approach since I’ve been here. The message he puts across to his team, it works, because they believe in him.”
