Green Bay Packers, NFL WTF???
Two NFL notes that have me confused today. First, the Green Bay Packers are a mess right now, starting with their offensive line and ending with their front office. These two stories happening in the same week offer some insight to what’s going on in Green Bay. Why is everyone bitching and firing old men from the grounds crew???
Rob Demovsky of the Green Bay Press-Gazette reports that Packers president Mark Murphy said Monday he’s disappointed with the team’s 4-4 start, especially Sunday’s shocking loss at Tampa Bay, and wants to make sure “changes” are made. The former NFL player turned executive, who took over the Packers in January 2008, believes the season can be salvaged. He also may have put head coach Mike McCarthy on notice. “We’re 4-4 halfway through the season,” Murphy said, “and I think we can still have a successful year just making sure that we make the changes that are necessary to get us to that point.”
I thought the job of the Packers president was to be seen and not heard. I don’t remember former Packers president Bob Harlan ever speaking about the football team directly to the media. I might be wrong, and all loyal Packers readers are welcome to correct me, but from my vantage point, the team president doesn’t have to state the obvious. Mark Murphy appears that he wants to be more involved in the football part of the program as the new president. Anyone other than the head coach talking to the media can send the wrong message to the fan base as evidenced by Murphy’s comments.
What changes would Murph like the Packers to make? Does he really understand the problems? I highly doubt it, and the way to create bad blood in an organization is to say something that makes no sense when you have no idea what you’re saying. I’m fairly confident that the Packers coaches are cynical about these comments.
Coach Mike McCarthy admitted today that he did have a conversation with former Packers employee Mike Wood and later inquired about Wood’s name to a supervisor, but denied any involvement in Wood’s firing.
“He made a comment to me, I made a comment to him, it’s not the worst thing that’s been said, but I would not say it to a fellow employee,” McCarthy said. “So that’s as far as I want to go with it.”
Asked if he had anything to do with Wood’s firing, McCarthy said “absolutely not.”
McCarthy would not reveal what Wood said when asked directly about it.
“Like I said, it’s not the worst thing that’s been said but I wouldn’t say it to a fellow employee,” McCarthy said.
Wood told the Journal Sentinel he yelled to McCarthy, “Hey coach, let’s get the boys ready to kick some butt this weekend,” on Oct. 28, four days before the Packers faced Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings.
On Nov. 1, Wood was told McCarthy informed a supervisor that Wood had said something about not “laying an egg” against the Vikings. Wood was then terminated.
The Packers host Dallas(-3) Sunday. This would normally be an autobet on the Packers getting points at home and fading Tony Romo on the road, but given Green Bay’s musical offensive line and the turmoil in the front office, this can’t be a good spot.
The Packers should now go on to win outright on Sunday.
Second, Dictator Goodell was not pleased with Miracle Covers favorite C. Ochocinco Sunday.
The Cincinnati Bengals receiver was fined $20,000 and reprimanded by the NFL for taking a dollar bill onto the field during an officials’ review of one of his catches last Sunday. Ochocinco held the dollar in his right hand at his side but didn’t give it to the official, who motioned for him to stay away.
Ochocinco said he was just having fun, but the league didn’t like it.
Ray Anderson, the league’s executive vice president of football operations, sent Ochocinco a letter that said: “The very appearance of impropriety is not acceptable. Your conduct was unprofessional and unbecoming an NFL player.”
The No Fun League is back in case anyone was wondering.
