Mike McCarthy Perfect Fit as Super Bowl Champion Coach

DALLAS -- Some NFL coaches easily stand apart. Entering the 2010 NFL season, a handful were ordained as the ones to watch, coaches who possessed traits that mattered.

Among them were the fire of Mike Singletary, the experience of Jeff Fisher, the creativity of Sean Payton, the craftiness of Bill Belichick and the bluster of Rex Ryan.

In Super Bowl XLV, it was Mike Tomlin who arrived as the hammer coach.

But when the last confetti fell and the final fireworks burst in Cowboys Stadium on Sunday night, Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy had wrapped fire, experience, creativity, craftiness, bluster and a hammer approach into a distinguishing leadership cabaret.

His coaching job this season and in this colossal game were among the best pro football has offered. When his team was ravaged all year with injuries, McCarthy inserted the next guy, coached him up along with his staff and kept things moving.

When his team had to win its final two regular-season games against the Giants and Bears to reach the playoffs, it answered.

When McCarthy took his bunch into wildcard playoff weekend and rolled the favored Eagles in Philadelphia, he warned all, "We're just getting started." The NFC top-seed Atlanta Falcons were pummeled next. The Bears, in their own backyard, were the team McCarthy guided his Packers past in the NFC Championship Game.

And once here in Super Bowl XLV, McCarthy nailed every chord. He had his players sized for Super Bowl rings on Saturday night before the game and then in it implemented a plan that sliced the Steelers' defense in stunning style.

Quarterback Aaron Rogers, the game's MVP, was the essential instrument, along with a Packers defense that outplayed the lauded Steelers defense.

It was McCarthy's guiding hand, though, his willingness to step forward and step out, boost his team's confidence level in all phases and then orchestrate the game in a persistent, aggressive mindset that pushed the Packers to champions.

McCarthy, 47, in his fifth season as Green Bay coach, stepped out of the shadows.

He grew up in Pittsburgh and gained his first NFL coaching job in 1993 as a Kansas City Chiefs offensive quality control assistant. He spent the 1999 season as a Packers quarterback coach.

When he returned in 2006 to lead this franchise, bigger coaching personalities and more successful ones made him obscure.

But McCarthy was building his style, just like he was building his team. When the moment was ripe, he pounced.
"I'm very comfortable in my own skin. I'm a big believer in people fitting into a certain culture, program and environment. I fit the Packers. It's so special as an NFL franchise."
-- Mike McCarthy
"I'm very comfortable in my own skin,'' he said on Monday morning after his final Super Bowl XLV news conference. "I'm a big believer in people fitting into a certain culture, program and environment. I fit the Packers. It's so special as an NFL franchise. But it might not be right for everybody.

"It's sort of like Pittsburgh, and when people hear me say that, they ask, 'What do you mean, it's so flat around there in Green Bay?' It's not the landscape. That's not the point. The point is the people."

From Rodgers to defensive coordinator Dom Capers to nose tackle B.J. Raji and beyond, McCarthy kept surrounding himself with the right people. He is a builder, he said.

He got his team to maximize its trust and belief in the schemes, in their coach.

"We're all connected,'" McCarthy said. "I'm a pretty simple person. I have a simple coaching philosophy. We have discipline and structure. We do fine players for the obvious things and we won't tolerate things like people being late. But I think you have to recognize that you have an ego, everyone has an ego, but you have to discipline your ego.

"The things you have to have as a head coach is you have to be able to put together a system and you have to be able to train quarterbacks,'' McCarthy said. "I've done that. I think we could have done this last year, but we let an opportunity slip away. That playoff loss to Arizona last year was something I was in my players' ears about all year. I'm sure they grew sick of that.''

Last season, the Packers were 11-5 and lost 51-45 in overtime in a wild-card game at Arizona. The Packers last season won seven of their last eight regular-season games. This season their six losses were by three points (four times) and four points (two times).

The point is McCarthy's Packers have been better than most realized for a while. The point is this coach has been building his persona and spreading it across this team in more effective ways than realized.

Super Bowl XLV proved the stage for a gripping revelation.

"You could see all of the fingerprints on our trophy,'' McCarthy said.

And you can see McCarthy's fingerprints all over this championship.