FanHouse MikeMccarthy

Somewhere in the Philadelphia area Dan Leone shakes his head knowingly. The former Eagles employee was fired for making some derogatory comments about the team on his Facebook page.

Leone was devastated, just like Mike Wood, a recently canned part-timer for the Lambeau Field maintenance staff. Unlike Leone, Wood didn't call out the organization via his favorite social media platform. Instead, Packers head coach Mike McCarthy had Wood fired after what turned out to be a misunderstanding. At least according to Woods.

Via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Though most had the Minnesota Vikings as the favorites to win the NFC North heading into the season, nearly everyone agreed that either the Chicago Bears or Green Bay Packers -- or both -- would at least pose a challenge to the Vikes' second straight division crown. Instead, we're taking this division race off life support and putting it to rest after Week 9. The 2009 NFC North champions will be the Vikings. They can now focus on securing home-field advantage in the playoffs.

The reason for the above sentiment is that both the Bears and Packers were abysmal, in different circumstances, Sunday afternoon. The Pack went into Tampa Bay and lost to the formerly winless Buccaneers, while the Bears were absolutely manhandled for the majority of the afternoon by a fickle Arizona squad.

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NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament. Because we have nothing better to do than predict what might happen if head coaches started punching each other in the face.

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NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament. Because we have nothing better to do than predict what might happen if head coaches started punching each other in the face.

Consider this hypothetical: what if two coaches met in a dark alley and threw down in a no-holds-barred brawl? Who would emerge victorious?

First, some background: back when I was in high school, when my friends and I were pretty creative in finding ways to avoid actually paying attention in class, we'd create brackets (think NCAA Tournament) where we'd pit our teachers against each other**. Whoever we thought would win in a fight advanced to the next round. It always ended with our offensive line coach against our wrestling coach in the finals and a huge argument as to who would come out on top.

Anyway, last week, the Back Porch staff somehow ended up discussing whether Rex Ryan or Tom Cable would win in a old school playground scrap. I passed along the above information, and shortly after that, an idea was born -- NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament.

This seems about right. Brett Favre, who will outlive us all, showed up at Oak Grove High School (Mississippi) yesterday to throw the ole pigskin around. Just like last summer (and the four before that), right before he unretired, made life miserable for Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy, and worked a trade to the Jets.

The Favre rumors change daily, but other than agent Bus Cook, no one "close to the situation" is willing to say much on the record. Which is why somebody at ESPN thought it would be a swell idea to get Oak Grove quarterback James McMahon on the horn to talk about watching Favre throw a football. Video is after the jump.

The Green Bay Packers' transition to a 3-4 defense is not likely to be complete in 2009. There are some personnel shifts that have to take place, and the change is an adjustment for most of the players who will return.

Sure, the Packers will play a base 3-4, but that won't be the only thing they do defensively. Head coach Mike McCarthy and general manager Ted Thompson discussed the team's plans over the weekend at the NFL combine, this time offering more depth and detail than they have in the past.

It wasn't a terribly shocking day Tuesday in Green Bay. At last, head coach Mike McCarthy introduced his overhauled defensive coaching staff to the media. As expected, former Carolina defensive coordinator Mike Trgovac and former Pittsburgh defensive starters Kevin Greene and Darren Perry are key members of the group.

With the 3-4 defense coming under new coordinator Dom Capers, McCarthy also made official what we talked about here a couple weeks ago. Star defensive end Aaron Kampman is going to move to outside linebacker.

The Green Bay Packers have spent the first part of the offseason fine-tuning their coaching staff, especially on defense. Anyone who watched the team play in 2008 knows this was work that needed to be done.

With Dom Capers in as defensive coordinator and former Carolina defensive coordinator Mike Trgovac now coaching the defensive line, things were looking up. Capers and head coach Mike McCarthy weren't done, however, and they've now made a hire that could be fairly described as "interesting."

Earlier this week, the Green Bay Packers hired Dom Capers to run their defense. Capers replaces Bob Sanders, who ran the defense into the ground for three years, and he'll bring with him a new way of doing things. Part of the reason behind the coordinator change was a decision by head coach Mike McCarthy. Even though there are rumblings he may be sitting on an increasingly warmer seat, McCarthy is overseeing a changeover in defensive strategy. The Packers have been a 4-3 team for some time, but the head coach wants to make the switch to a 3-4. That's why he hired Capers, who is well-schooled in that scheme.

However, does Green Bay's best defensive player fit the scheme?

Perhaps it took longer than expected for Mike McCarthy, but the search is over. The Packers canned defensive coordinator Bob Sanders after a miserable season, and speculation on a replacement immediately began to center around former San Francisco head coach Mike Nolan.

When Nolan took the job in Denver, the talk turned to former Redskins and Jaguars coordinator Gregg Williams. He ended up going to New Orleans, leaving McCarthy to what was presumably his third choice for a coordinator.

The third choice for McCarthy is a veteran coach with a ton of credibility around the NFL. Former Carolina and Houston head coach Dom Capers, a very successful defensive coach, is going to take over the Packers' defense.