CHICAGO There have been times during the past six weeks when longtime reporters covering the Green Bay Packers sat in the Lambeau Field media auditorium all wondering the same thing.
Who are you, and what have you done with Mike McCarthy?
For the first 4 years of his tenure as the Green Bay Packers coach, McCarthy had spent his time at the podium doing his best to say nothing of import. An extremely engaging guys guy in one-on-one settings McCarthy is a terrific storyteller, a quality hes said before he got from his dad, a former Pittsburgh fireman, cop and bar owner McCarthy had been nothing like that in press conference settings for most of his head-coaching career.
But ever since a depressing 7-3 loss to the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on Dec. 12, McCarthys news conferences have been must-see TV (or Packers.com viewing, anyway). Hes been good for one striking statement per press gathering, beginning with an unforgettable line Were nobodys underdog the Wednesday before the Packers Dec. 19 game at New England, a team that was a two-touchdown favorite over his Aaron Rodgers-less club.
The Packers nearly stunned the then-AFC favorites in a Sunday night game with backup Matt Flynn at quarterback opening the game by winning the coin toss, deferring and then recovering a gutsy onside kick and McCarthys confident talk has simply grown from there.
Its also worked like a charm. Sunday, his ultra-confident team will play for a trip to Super Bowl XLV against the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship Game at Soldier Field.
Asked this week if his change in conversational approach was a calculated move, McCarthy dismissed the notion.
I think it's just how I felt, McCarthy replied. I don't think I'm a very calculated individual. I don't think I could pull that off.
What he has pulled off is exuding a confidence that has permeated his locker room and has his players believing what they were before the season, despite an avalanche of injuries, a middling 3-3 start and disappointing losses to Atlanta (Nov. 28), the Lions and the Patriots in a four-week span.
After the Nobodys underdog line, McCarthy followed that up by with confident talk in advance of back-to-back win-or-go-home regular-season games against the New York Giants and Bears. It continued in the playoffs, with talking about the challenge of handling success after winning in Philadelphia two days before actually doing so in the NFC Wild Card round. He also boastfully responded to a question about his defense by saying that he had a championship-caliber football team.
He said in advance of last weeks NFC Divisional Playoff win at Atlanta that we fully expect to win. Asked about media assertions that the Packers were the most dangerous No. 6 seed in NFL playoff history, McCarthy smirked and replied, I agree.
Even this week, in advance of the title game, McCarthy was still talking the talk. In response to a question on Monday about Tramon Williams, he replied, When these playoffs and the Super Bowl are completed, everybody in the country is going to know who Tramon Williams is.
In his final pre-game press conference Friday, when asked about Rodgers, McCarthy began his answer by saying that the quarterback has a chance to achieve greatness with a Super Bowl victory before walking the statement back slightly by adding, But obviously we've got to win the NFC Championship Game first, and I'm not getting ahead of myself.
Nobodys underdog, McCarthy said, recalling the phrase that started it all. Were nobodys favorite, either. I think that's our motto today as a team. This group has a lot of confidence. We've never wavered from our goals. We've had challenges, everybody does. But we're here for a reason. We deserve to be here, and we're excited about getting to Chicago.
The Bears, meanwhile, spent much of the week playing the respect card, peeved that oddsmakers have installed the Packers as 3 -point favorites even though Chicago won the NFC North, is the No. 2 seed and is playing at home.
Its definitely been a part of what weve dealt with this year, coming out of nowhere. Its not like a lot of people expected us to be in this position, Bears coach Lovie Smith said before pointing out that his teams opponent had been a chic Super Bowl pick before the season. The Packers were supposed to be in this position, so I guess I can see why (theyre favored), but to me the playoffs, its pretty hard to say a team should be the underdog in the playoffs. Weve played them twice this year, we had two great games. The last time up at their place, went right down until the end. (I) expect it to be the same type of game. Whether were an underdog or not, I mean well see.
The Packers didnt seem the least bit bothered by being favored or even remotely concerned about being overconfident. On Friday, when asked about the mood of the team heading into the biggest game of most of their careers, Rodgers answer hardly came as a surprise.
Id say very confident. I think were a confident group, Rodgers replied. Weve won two playoff games and I think theres guys had a better focus this week, great preparation. The young guys, I think we realize the importance of this game. This doesnt come around every year, and we have to make the most of it.
But the seeds of McCarthys confident talk were actually sown at the teams annual Welcome Back Luncheon inside the Lambeau Field atrium during training camp. It was there that the first hint of McCarthys confidence in this team surfaced.
While much of the attention was focused on the handful of players who wore cowboy hats and bolo ties in a nod to Super Bowl XLVs location Arlington, Texas, just outside Dallas McCarthy did nothing to discourage Rodgers and the other players from playing dress up. Then, he spoke.
This is an exciting bunch of men. We'd play anybody, anywhere, any time. We'll go right here in the parking lot of they'll show up, the Green Bay Packers coach told the gathering at the yearly Green Bay Chamber of Commerce event. That's the kind of attitude we have.
I don't know if you've noticed this, but we've got a number of our players already dressed for Dallas, Texas, so we're ready to go!"
Now, theyre one game away from doing just that.
"JASON WILDE" wrote: