Thompson found his perfect fit in McCarthy

[longtimefan]

We have a thread http://www.packerforum.com/threads/mccarthys-job-of-being-a-good-coach.32026/#post-414418 on Mike as a good coach.....But that is about him and being good..

This article is strictly how Ted came to hire Mike

But this is a new article on jsonline today

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/thompson-found-his-man-in-mccarthy-iv3fap5-135806398.html

I am quoting a few parts as they stand out to me...

McCarthy had brought a giant-sized ringed binder with all his notes, ideas and schedules in it. He had a datebook with other work-related information in it. Not once did he pull them out during the interview.

"He asked everything," McCarthy said. "We talked about hiring staff, training camp, philosophical questions, how to manage a roster. It was top to bottom. He fired a lot of questions at me. I answered a lot of questions."

"I wanted to find the right man. Being a head coach you have to deal with so many different personalities and coaching staffs and organizing and all that. That's all well and good but you have to be a person. I think Mike's a good person."

Thompson interviewed defensive coordinator Jim Bates the next day to conclude the process. He was very impressed with Bates and when he went to Harlan's office, he clearly had not made a decision which way to go.

Harlan could tell Thompson was run down. He was agonizing over the decision.

"I distinctly remember him saying, 'I'm going to go walk the hallways and do some thinking,' " Harlan recalled.

On Monday, Jan. 9, Thompson called McCarthy and asked another interview-type question. McCarthy answered it and Thompson said, thanks, and hung up. McCarthy found it odd, but he thought to himself that he had a shot.

Around lunchtime the next day, Thompson called again. He had a couple more questions. Finally, he asked McCarthy, "How would you like to be the 14th head coach of the Green Bay Packers?"
After accepting, McCarthy found himself standing in a parking lot with tears in his eyes.

"I don't think you ever know," Thompson said of hiring the right person. "You draft people and you hope you did your work and made the right decision. I don't know that you ever know, but I did feel like worst-case scenario you're getting a good man.

"Everybody can do X's and O's. And they start doing that (talking about it). I've played some football but that was years ago, so that kind of goes right past me. I knew he'd be a good man. I thought that was important."

In McCarthy's case, he had no qualms with not having a large say in personnel. He loved the draft and the process of evaluating young talent. He loved the challenge of taking rookies and molding them into stars.

"I couldn't have been partnered with a better guy," McCarthy said. "I think our personalities are different, but I think they blend very well. He's a great boss because he's a great listener and he doesn't get emotional. You hit tough times; he makes it easy to talk those things out

Few days ago on NFLN Brian Billick was asked about being a coach for Miami, KC or any other spot..He said that any coach and GM have to b a good fit personality wise..

So with Ted saying he wanted a good man makes sense when you hear Billick's statement...

Mike has no real say in players that Ted acquires?? I find that very interesting..Maybe it has changed, but I heard that safety Anthony Smith was cut because Mike didnt like his attitude??

 

[longtimefan]

Wow no one seen/commented on this?

 

[bozz_2006]

I'm gonna read it this afternoon. Wanted to make sure I had enough time to give it a fair read. I wonder if my opinion on it now will be different than it would have been had I read it on Saturday...

 

[SanDiegoCheese]

very interesting, thanks for posting!

 

[TJV]

Great article. It shows how much Thompson cared about making the right decision. As Silverstein writes, he agonized over making the best choice. I like some of the quotes above, and this quote also caught my eye:

"I talked to a whole bunch of people, and there were some fairly way-up-here kind of people compared to me that were very gracious," Thompson said.

Cynics and skeptics can say that was self-serving but IMO it’s more evidence that Thompson’s critics were/are wrong about him having a huge ego. That is not the statement of an egomaniac. I bring this up because during the Favre fiasco that was one of the charges leveled at Thompson that I thought was particularly unfair. I just didn’t see evidence of a guy with a huge ego like a Parcells or Jerry Jones. And at that time, I wanted Rodgers to start at QB instead of Favre and that of course couldn’t have been because of my big ego as Packers’ GM!

I don’t think it’s the correct characterization to say McCarthy doesn’t have any say in personnel. Certainly, as the article says, Thompson has final say, as he should. But McCarthy has input in those decisions, as do his coordinators and assistant coaches. For example, I wonder if Clay Matthews would be a Packer today had Kevin Greene not been so high on him.

John Schneider being a strong advocate for McCarthy was news to me. That’s a feather in his cap.

 

[bozz_2006]

Awesome to read a little about these guys who might as well be from another planet, as far as what we fans know of them. It's cool to see that they're real guys. Of course it's cool for me to see that Thompson mentioned praying about the decision. How nervous he was, you can feel how badly he "needs" to succeed. That's the kind of guy I want as the captain of my ship. There's a lot to be said about the desire to win, but often over-looked, IMO, are the people who refuse to fail. That's Thompson. In my mind, people who need to win are front-runners; if things get hairy, they might fold it up. Those who refuse to lose are grinders. When they get down they keep slugging. Give me that guy, every time.

 

[Kitten]

Thanks for posting that, I didn't see it the first time around. I think TT and MM work very well together and one of the smartest things TT did was hire MM. I enjoyed reading that, it shows what kind of GM TT is, we are lucky to have him.