Here's the rub: Former Packers coach Mike McCarthy denies story about massages
It didn't take any sort of insider knowledge to see that something hasn't been quite right with the Packers over the past two seasons, the first time Green Bay has suffered through consecutive losing campaigns since 1990 and 1991. But Bleacher Report's Tyler Dunne did us the service of breaking down all the gory details anyway in an exhaustive story published Thursday, revealing the depths of the dysfunction between quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former coach Mike McCarthy and the inability (or unwillingness) of the team's front office to do anything about it.
Rodgers comes off as a standoffish malcontent who held a grudge against McCarthy even before he was named Packers coach in 2006 (the latter was the 49ers offensive coordinator in 2005 when San Francisco chose Alex Smith with the first pick in the draft, saying Smith was a better quarterback than Rodgers, who famously slid to the Packers at pick No. 24). McCarthy is described as the worst type of players' coach, the kind whose hands-off approach and delegation of authority creates a noticeable lack of leadership. Former general manager Ted Thompson let the team's most vocal on-field players leave via free agency, surrounding Rodgers with younger players he did not trust (though he didn't trust some of the Packers' veterans, either).
Dunne gives us numerous examples of all this: One source estimated Rodgers changed about a third of McCarthy's play calls in the huddle, McCarthy reportedly changed his assistants' position assignments on a whim, an ailing Thompson reportedly fell asleep during meetings late in his tenure. But the juiciest anecdote was this: Late in his coaching tenure McCarthy reportedly missed crucial pregame meetings so he could get massages in his office.
"One player had the same massage therapist, and she let it slip that McCarthy would sneak her up a back stairway to his office while the rest of the team prepared for that week's opponent," Dunne wrote.
"That was when guys were like, 'What the heck?'" one unnamed longtime Packer told Dunne. "Everybody was like, 'Really? Wow.'"
McCarthy denied it to NFL.com's Tom Pelissero.
"I wouldn't even know where to start and stop with the article," he said Friday. "But to say that I skipped a team meeting for a massage is utterly absurd."
He did try add a little levity to his denial, however.
"I have a massage scheduled tomorrow, and I can promise you I will not miss my primary responsibility of picking up my two kids from school," he said.
The NFL Network's James Jones also seemed to question some of the assertions made in the article from unnamed people, though Ryan Grant, Greg Jennings, DuJuan Harris and Jermichael Finley all gave on-the-record comments to Dunne.
"I'm getting a bunch of texts from my former teammates and they're like, 'Where was I at when this was going on?' " Jones said on the network's "Total Access" show Thursday night. "I don't remember any of this stuff going on.
"When you're with someone for 13 years, you're gonna have some fight, you're gonna have some arguments. . . . Aaron Rodgers respected Mike, and Mike respected Aaron. When it came to times where things weren't going right or Aaron thought things should be going this way or Mike thought things should be going this way, it'll be some conflict."
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