In the wake of last year’s “Fail Mary” debacle, many were furious.
But Packers coach Mike McCarthy was his normal, steady self, and one of his predecessors said he envied the restriant.
Former Seahawks and Packers coach Mike Holmgren was interviewing McCarthy on KJR 950 (audio here), and admitted he wouldn’t have been so cool about the simultaneous-catch touchdown call.
“There’s not a question in my mind that was as an interception,” Holmgren said (via ESPN.com). “The thing is, when I watched your press conference the next day, and Mike you’re a real gentleman, I would have been fined. There’s no question in my mind, I would have been fined. And you handled that about as well as I’ve seen a coach handle that. Was that difficult?”
“Thanks,” McCarthy replied. “No question that was difficult, but it was the best thing for our football team, and I never lost sight of that. That was my vision of what I needed to do when I walked into the post-game press conference, and I think it was very apparent what happened. There’s good calls in our league and not-so-good calls, and not-so-good calls sometimes go the other way, . . .
“You knew there was going to be a storm that was going to follow that situation, and I was just trying to get our football team to move on as quickly as possible.”
McCarthy’s ability to keep things level is admirable, but he also quickly recognized he couldn’t let it become a distraction for his team, which it easily could have been.