Sunday, December 06, 2009

Practicing in the Cold Helps...

According to Mike Vandermouse, Mike McCarthy recently said

But the Packers might be better equipped to handle the cold this year because McCarthy has them practicing outdoors on a new heated field. In past years, the Packers worked out inside the Don Hutson Center in the winter.

“Practicing outside definitely helps,” McCarthy said.

How many seasons did it take Captain Dipshit to come to the conclusion that practicing in the cold might actually help the team weather the cold? How many seasons did he say, "You get the best practice under the best practice conditions, so we'll just practice indoors and leave the doors open?" Does anyone remember that we lost the NFC Championship at Lambeau Field because the team sucked in the cold? Knowing McCarthy, he probably has Crosby and Kapinos practicing their kicking indoors, too.

McCarthy sucks. Slowest, most stubborn fuck I've ever seen.

15 comments:

Kirk said...

Did any previous Packer coaches practice outside or did they all practice indoors as well?

Cuphound said...

I'm pretty sure the "indoor" thing was a McCarthy innovation. I can't say that I've done a historical survey, but the fact that McCarthy was practicing indoors was found to be quite noteworthy by the media and was questioned several times. I have to assume that it was not the usual practice of his predecessors. If you discover otherwise, please do let me know.

Unknown said...

After Crosby's missed field goal last night, I have to assume that he'll be practicing outdoors from now on.

Unknown said...

Forgot to mention - I don't think his kick in itself was bad, I think they had problems with the snap and getting it down (which still means they should practice outdoors, but that the miss wasn't entirely Crosby's fault)

Cuphound said...

Special teams have been a nagging problem for the Pack all season long. Crosby didn't do badly last year, but this year he's doing progressively worse. Last night's win against the Ravens was the first time all season that Jeremy Kapinos, our punter, didn't suck.

The Packers have trouble with consistency and discipline.

Kirk said...

Had a quiet moment at work while sipping my coffee to fuel up for the morning and did a google search for "packers indoor practice facility." I came up with a link to the following:

http://www.packers.com/history/fast_facts/don_hutson_center/

Sorry for the lack of a hyperlink, I can't remember exactly how to do one. The facility was built in the early Mike Holmgren years and in fact you can see a picture of a much younger and slimmer Holmgren with Ron Wolf and Don Hutson in this article. I'm not sure how often they practiced indoors during the Holmgren years, though.

Lots of other teams have indoor practice facilities too, such as the Patriots, who are also well known for being a great bad weather team. When bad weather is expected for an upcoming game, or just plain cold temperatures, Bill Belichick does indeed make the team practice outdoors. When the weather is windy, wet or cold during the week he often has outdoor practices. I wonder if McCarthy does the same.

Look at it this way, at least the Packers indoor practice facility hasn't collapsed on the team like the relatively new Cowboys indoor practice facility did last May!

Cuphound said...

Belichik is smart to use a combination of both. McCarthy's Packers have improved since they moved to that approach. But it took McCarthy a few years to figure that out. McCarthy is just slow on the uptake.

As far as I know, the Pack don't have problems with their buildings. The Cowboys seem to be unique these days on that front.

Maybe we should give Mike McCarthy to the Cowboys...

Unknown said...

well, if the Cowboys and their fans can handle seeing Wade Phillips on the 80-yard screen in the stadium, they might be able to handle McCarthy. And with playcalling/preparation, I'm not sure anyone would notice the difference ;)

Anonymous said...

I found your blog from CheeseheadTV (I'm PACKERS.) I have a question that may sound stupid: I recently started my own Pack blog (http://www.gbpnation.blogspot.com) and I've heard so much about copyright infringement and stuff, and I'm just making sure that it isn't illegal or any thing to blog about a "corporation" like the Pack. Thank you.

Cuphound said...

Hey Alex!

To the best of my knowledge, you can blog as much as you want about the Packers without running into a copyright infringement.

Mind you, I'm not an attorney. But while this isn't a Packers blog per se, I've been posting about the Pack since I started the blog and no one's sued me.

Unknown said...

I'm disappointed that you didn't use the qualifier "I'm not an attorney, but I DO watch a lot of 'Law and Order'"

Cuphound said...

Well, Dinur, that's because I don't watch a lot of Law and Order. In fact, I believe that you are the major Law and Order viewer in the family.

I did watch The Paper Chase when it was a three-year series on Showtime. So as you can see, my legal experience is really quite dated. I have tuned in once or twice to Boston Legal, where apparently one of major parts of practicing law is sleeping with the client. Things have changed since my day. As a result, I'm not sure that I can do poor Alex much good.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your advice. I got similar answers from the authors of CHTV. Sounds like my daily ranting is legal.

StLee said...

Wanna trade McCarthy for Mora? Didn't think so. Mora is a clown. Just like his old man.

Cuphound said...

I wouldn't mind trading McCarthy to have Holmgren back. But I hear that Holmgren wants to have full control of personnel back. He wasn't so great at that before.