When the Green Bay Packers suffered an embarrassing loss to the New York Giants in which they looked overmatched and outplayed, it could have demoralized a team with too many starters and stars on the sidelines in casts and on crutches.
Three days later, almost everyone expected a verbal lambasting from coach Mike McCarthy.
“But he gave this speech,” said nose tackle B.J. Raji, “and it just threw me.”
McCarthy quoted Corinthians from the Bible: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
“The room was in complete silence,” said Raji. “It was not a long speech. I was surprised. And shocked. And kind of impressed. Losing a four-touchdown game on prime time, that’s cause for a fire-and-brimstone type of speech. It just shows how much he understands the players he’s coaching. I think the message got across.”
The message was to learn from the loss and convert it into something useful and therefore something meaningful.
You’ll never hear McCarthy say he’s out to prove the doubters wrong. You’ll never hear him vent his defenses to critics. One of his survival tactics is that he doesn’t waste his energy on anything he perceives as negative.
“I feel the ability to grow the positive is the best way to accomplish things,” McCarthy said last week in a one-on-one interview.