Mike McCarthy was stunned by timing of his firing: 'It couldn't have been handled any worse'

McCarthy was irked by the timing and lack of emotion showed in his firing

Late last season, the Green Bay Packers made a coaching change for the first time in 13 years. After a bad loss to the Arizona Cardinals -- a team that would eventually be bad enough to land the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft -- that dropped the team's record to 4-7-1 team president Mark Murphy decided it was time for a change and dismissed long-time head coach Mike McCarthy. 

McCarthy had been the team's coach since 2006, a time during which he compiled a 125-77-2 record, made nine trips to the playoffs, won the NFC North six times, and captured a Super Bowl title. But the Packers were on their way to a second straight season of missing the playoffs, the team's offense appeared stale and anachronistic, and not much looked like it was going to change anytime soon. And so the Packers made a change themselves. 

McCarthy was reportedly a candidate for several other coaching jobs this offseason, but ended up passing on most. This week, he spoke about his breakup with the Packers for the first time, in an interview with ESPN's Rob Demovsky. He let on that he was not thrilled by the timing of his firing from the top job in Green Bay.

"If we missed the playoffs, I expected change might happen," McCarthy told ESPN.com. "But the timing surprised me. Actually it stunned me. It couldn't have been handled any worse."

McCarthy was also nonplussed by the fact that Murphy did not show enough emotion in informing him on the decision. 

"It couldn't have been handled any worse," McCarthy said again. "Anytime you lose a close game, it's a difficult time emotionally afterwards, but when you lose a home game at Lambeau Field in December, it's really hard. And that hasn't happened very often. I walked out of my press conference, and I'm thinking about the game, thinking about how our playoff shot was now minimal. That's where my head was at. And when I was told Mark Murphy wanted to see me -- and the messenger was cold and the energy was bad. Mark said it was an ugly loss, and it was time to make change. He said something about the offense and the special teams, and he didn't think it was going to get any better. There was no emotion to it. That was hard."

However, McCarthy now says he's relieved and that it's clear both sides needed a change. 

"I go back to really the first thing my wife said to me, the first moment Jessica and I were alone and talking about what happened," McCarthy said. "She said, 'Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm relieved for you.' I kinda gave her a look. And she said, 'The last two or three years, you haven't been here physically or mentally. Every family loses their husband, father during the season, but you've been gone the last two offseasons. I know you're not happy with the way things were going there, and it's beat the hell out of you. It's beat the hell out of you the last couple of years. It's been hard to watch it.' That was a couple hours after I got home, and that was the reality, that was the reality that I had to identify with, and that was real."

McCarthy is still only in his mid-50's, and will presumably be a candidate for several head coaching jobs in the future. Even if he fares well, he's unlikely to be in his next job for quite as long as he was with the Packers, simply because very few coaches last 13 years in one place anymore these days, but perhaps he can find a way to enjoy himself more in the next stop than he apparently did the last few years. If he uses the time off to reinvigorate his offensive system, the next team could find a good deal of success with him in charge.