Head Coach Mike McCarthy has come a long way in his career to be where he is today. Mike has had a long history of coaching teams and positions. Let’s take a look at Mike’s life and see all his accomplishments that have led up to this year.
Mike was born on November 10th, 1963, and was born and raised in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. He has three sisters and one younger brother that sadly passed away in 2015.
When Mike got older, he attended Scottsdale community college where he went on to play football. After one year, he transferred to Baker University which is located in Kansas. Here, he would play Tight-end and win all-conference tight-end twice.
Mike’s coaching career began as a graduate assistant at the University of Fort Hays State. There he would work with linebackers and defensive ends. After two years at Fort Hays, Mike went back to his hometown of Pittsburgh where he would call Mike Gottfried, the Head Coach of Pittsburgh University. However, Gottfried explained that there were no positions available for him.
Without an interview, McCarthy entered Gottfried’s office unannounced to introduce himself. In luck, Gottfried told him that one of the volunteer coaches had just quit, and the job would be opened for him, but with no pay. Mike agreed and got to work.
After three long seasons of no pay, Mike finally was promoted to Wide Receiver coach. He would only spend one year here though because the next opportunity was knocking on the door.
The Kansas City Chiefs gave him a call and asked if he could join the staff. McCarthy worked two years as an offensive quality control assistant for Kansas. In the year of 1995, he would then become the QB coach for KC.
After that eventful couple of years in Kansas, he would then be hired by the Green Bay Packers in the same position, as QB coach. Here he would work with all-American Brett Favre. In his season of coaching him, Brett threw for 4,091 yards which were the 4th best in Favre’s whole career. McCarthy sure was showing the football world that he belonged here.
Of course, if you’re having success with a famous Quarterback, you are going to be recognized in higher positions. That’s what happened in the year 2000. when the New Orleans Saints hired Mike to be their offensive coordinator. During that year, the Saints has a 10-6 record and won their first-ever playoff game. McCarthy won the “Assistant Head Coach of the Year” award.
After a couple of seasons of building a high-scoring Saints team, McCarthy was then tossed to another team (again). This time it was the San Francisco 49ers. Mike would spend the 2005 NFL season with this team as their offensive coordinator, however, things wouldn’t really go as planned.
While at the 49ers, McCarthy would lead a team without their star Quarterback Tim Rattay. This would end up being a bad year for McCarthy as his team would rank 30th for points scored. Seems similar to how the 49ers are this year with points scored per game, hmmm.
Not all was lost, as the next job would be a breakthrough for Mike. The Green Bay Packers would once again hire Mike, this time though he would be the head coach. During this time, he would go on to win a Super Bowl and make many playoff appearances. Mike turned the Green Bay Packers into a juggernaut team that would last a long time.
Mike coached the Packers from 2006 to 2018. This was for sure the highlight years of his career. After 2018, McCarthy was released by the Packers and was no longer the coach of the team. This still didn’t stop him as he would then go on to look for other opening jobs.
That’s when he found a struggling Dallas Cowboys team that was in need of a new coach. McCarthy met with owner Jerry Jones and was then soon hired as the new man of the dome on January 7th, 2020. He still coaches the Dallas Cowboys today and has a current record of 26-18.
While some fans don’t approve of McCarthy as the head coach of the Cowboys, it’s no secret that he has worked very hard to be where he is today. Mike’s story is very interesting because he went from not earning a penny, to becoming one of the most well-known football coaches in the history of sports.
