Maybe it’s the Pittsburgh roots or his laid-back public persona, but Mike McCarthy has long carried a reputation that doesn’t fully align with his résumé. According to Mark Kaboly, that perception may already be shifting as the Steelers’ building is experiencing a “new feel”.
“He’s not playing any games. If he tells you one thing, that’s what’s going to happen. I wouldn’t misconstrue that with being an easy coach,” Kaboly said via 93.7 The Fan’s Pomp and Joe Show. “I’ve heard stories where he told some players stuff that maybe they didn’t want to hear. So he’s still a tough coach that’s not gonna let people walk over him.”
Good leaders walk a fine line between likability and brutal honesty. If you want to see McCarthy do that, fire up HBO and watch his season of Hard Knocks with the Dallas Cowboys. He comes off as a players’ coach, as Mike Tomlin was often labeled, but he showed multiple sides to his personality. Not many coaches are willing to spar with the star quarterback, but McCarthy wasn’t shy about trading barbs with an injured Dak Prescott, who missed practice.
His unwillingness to settle for mediocrity should resonate with Steelers fans who haven’t won a playoff game in a decade.
“This is about winning a world championship. Period. Because that’s all that matters. Going to the playoffs ain’t good enough. Having a winning season, not good enough. Getting to the championship game, not good enough,” he said on Hard Knocks.
That rhetoric won’t land with fans until the results follow, but it speaks to those who fear McCarthy’s hire will bring in more of the same. At the very least, fans have clear expectations.
People look at his résumé with the Cowboys and write it off as a failed tenure, but he delivered Dallas its most competitive seasons in decades. A 49-35 record, including three straight 12-win seasons, is nothing to sneeze at. Both losing seasons came with Dak Prescott missing significant time due to injury.
“I think he does get somewhat of a bad rap,” Kaboly said. “He is John Harbaugh. Those guys have the same exact résumé. Harbaugh’s considered a Hall of Fame coach, and McCarthy, it seems like people view him as a failure. I don’t think that’s quite fair.”
Any Super Bowl-winning coach on the top-15 all-time wins list should be considered a smashing success. Winning is hard in the NFL, and keeping up with the evolving league for two decades is even harder. Mike Tomlin’s operation may have grown stale after 20 years with the team, but this is now McCarthy’s third franchise with plenty of learnings and evolutions along the way.
“This whole inside of that building has a new feel to it. I wasn’t a big fan of saying Mike Tomlin [is] stale, but now I know what that means,” Kaboly said. “It does feel a little bit refreshing.”
It wasn’t the most exciting hire for those of us hoping for a young, innovative mind. But exciting doesn’t always equate to good. McCarthy spoke of a “clean slate” for struggling young players like Kaleb Johnson and Roman Wilson.
A fresh start is exactly what the franchise needed. That’s already happening inside the building, even before the offseason training program begins.