Packers Coach Mike McCarthy Proved He Is A Coward Monday Night
By:Ryan Wooley
By now I'm sure everyone has seen the final play from Monday Night Football where the officials ruled that Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate caught a hail Mary for a touchdown, despite the fact that he came down with the ball at the same time as Packers safety M.D. Jennings and clearly should have been flagged for pass interference.
I'm not debating whether it was or wasn't a catch or that the officials missed the call, because they clearly did. What I would like to bring to everyone's attention though is that Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy is a coward and lost all credibility in his post game interview because he refused to talk about the incident.
I understand that players and coaches have to tip-toe lightly on what they say to the media because of the possibility of being fined, but there comes a time when a coach needs to man up and say what needs to be said, even if it hits them in the pocket book and McCarthy dropped the ball on this.
By not addressing the preverbal elephant in the room not only made him look incompetent, but shows he truly doesn't care about how his team was just screwed over.
I've truly never understood why coaches are so afraid to take a stand no matter what the sport is. Have some courage and testicular fortitude to back up the guys you go to war with!
Here in Detroit we've seen it all too often over the last few years with coaches not standing up for their team or player after a major blown call.
Remember Lions head coach Jim Schwartz nonchalant approach after the Calvin Johnson 'no catch' against the Bears? He said afterwards that the play didn't cost them the game and acted like it was no big deal.
Or how about Tigers manager Jim Leyland's laid back approach after the blown perfect game by Jim Joyce saying that umpires are human and make mistakes.
In theory—yes, both were correct. The touchdown didn't technically cost the Lions the game as they had other opportunities throughout the contest to take advantage of, but they also put themselves in a position to win at the end and probably would have had the call stood.
Umpires meanwhile do make mistakes, but the call by Joyce wasn't just any mistake—it was a history call. Had it been a called third strike that was a ball in meaningless spring training game, then I get it. But Galarraga was robbed of his moment in history and Leyland said nothing.
The same can be said about McCarthy. His team just grinded out a very tough, physical game for nearly 60 minutes and were robbed in the end by the officials with the loss possibly proving costly to them the rest of the season.
What if Green Bay just misses the playoffs because they miss winning the division title by a game or they tie with Seattle for the final wildcard spot and the Seahawks get in because they own the tiebreaker?
McCarthy not only owed it to his team to stand up for them after the debacle, but he owed it to the whole city of Green Bay.
To stand up on the podium however and say you shouldn't be in that situation and that you need to prepare your team better is just a cop out. Sure, you should have taken advantage of opportunities throughout the game but you didn't. What you did do however is have the lead with seconds to play and made a great play at the end, only to have it ripped away from you. How do you prepare for that Mike?
I bet had he said something too, he would have had the whole nation on his side and made it harder for the league to fine him because everyone would have been thinking the same thing. Now of course I'm not saying that after every game a coach should berate the officials for all their bad calls, but when something drastic like this happens and costs you a game, you owe it as the mouthpiece of your team to say something.
I would like to applaud at least one player on the Packers roster for having the guts to say something, despite the fact that he will probably be fined, as offensive linemen T.J. Lang took to Twitter to vent his frustrations saying:
"Got {Bleep} by the refs.. Embarrassing. Thanks nfl"
"Any player/coach in Seattle that think they won that game has zero integrity as a man and should be embarrassed".
"{Bleep} it NFL. Fine me and use the money to pay the regular refs".
Those tweets were the third most re-tweeted tweets of all time and Lang also joined Valenti and Foster and admitted that he and his teammates were wondering if there is a way that they could go on strike and not play games to make a statement that the regular refs need to be brought back.
Interview
Lang's comments are exactly what I thought Mike McCarthy should have said in the post-game instead of hiding behind fear and openly refusing to answer any questions about the officials.
Yes, the NFL should still fine Lang because of the rule in place about not criticizing officials, but if McCarthy is any kind of a man then he will offer to pay the fine since he didn't have the balls himself to stand up and do the right thing.
Follow Ryan Wooley on Twitter @WooleyMammoth85
