McCarthy's success doesn't surprise Schottenheimer

By Rob Demovsky
rdemovsk@greenbaypressgazette.com

Marty Schottenheimer knew only two things about Mike McCarthy before he met him: He came highly recommended from offensive guru Paul Hackett, and more importantly, he knew McCarthy’s roots.

It was early in 1993, and Schottenheimer had a few openings to fill on his Kansas City Chiefs coaching staff. McCarthy got his foot in the door thanks to Hackett, who Schottenheimer would hire that same year as his offensive coordinator.

But that’s not why he gave McCarthy his first shot in the NFL.

“Don’t misunderstand that from the outset of this thing, the fact that he was from Pittsburgh was important to me,” Schottenheimer said this week in a telephone interview from his vacation home in Palm Springs, Calif.

“People chuckle about this, but western Pennsylvania, you go back and look at the history of coaches who have come out of that area, I mean it’s amazing.”

Schottenheimer, who grew up in McDonald, Pa., an industrial town located 18 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, figured only a Pittsburgh guy would understand.

So imagine Schottenheimer’s surprise when told this week that Green Bay Packers General Manager Ted Thompson, a native Texan, mentioned McCarthy’s “Pittsburgh macho” as something that impressed him during McCarthy’s interview in January 2006.

“Did he really say that?” Schottenheimer said. “See what I mean? Chuck Knox was from Sewickley. Joe Walton was from Beaver Falls. (Bill) Cowher’s from there.

"Basically, you realize very early on in your life that nobody’s going to give you anything, and you’re going to have to work your tail off if you’re going to have any measure of success. It’s kind of that steel-mill, coal-mine type of mentality.”

Today, McCarthy returns to his NFL roots, when the second-year Packers coach will lead his team into Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium.

To be sure, success in the NFL — especially the kind McCarthy has enjoyed in his second season as the Packers head coach — has more to do with football than place of origin. Schottenheimer knows that. After all, he’s hired coaches from all over who have gone on to succeed at the highest level. The list of men who received their first jobs because of Schottenheimer reads like a who’s who of coaches and includes Cowher, Tony Dungy, Herm Edwards, Cam Cameron and Wade Phillips.

McCarthy was a relative coaching neophyte when he walked into Schottenheimer’s office nearly a decade and a half ago. After serving as a graduate assistant at Fort Hays State for two years, he was volunteer assistant at the University of Pittsburgh in 1989 — the same year he worked the graveyard shift as a toll-booth operator on the Pennsylvania Turnpike — and then a graduate assistant there for two years before Hackett promoted him to receivers coach in 1992. It was under Hackett that McCarthy learned the West Coast offense.

“Paul recommended him, and he came in and I was extremely impressed with him,” said Schottenheimer, who is out of coaching after being fired by the San Diego Chargers after last season.

“Of course, being a western Pennsylvania guy, that fit, but I was very, very impressed with his understanding of football, in particular the offensive side and quarterback play. And of course, he was a good worker, and he had a much more controlled demeanor than I did. It’s always important to get a balance on your coaching staff. So, we got together, and he did a terrific job for us, and of course he’s done a terrific job as he’s moved on. We’re really enjoying watching what he’s doing in Green Bay this year.”

It was in Kansas City where McCarthy met Edwards, the current Chiefs coach. Edwards was a scout for the Chiefs in 1990 and 1991 and then became defensive backs coach in 1992, when Dungy left to become the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator. He worked for the Chiefs until 1996, when Dungy brought him to Tampa Bay.

“I tease all those West Coast (offense) guys,” Edwards said. “I grew up on the West Coast. I knew about coach (Bill) Walsh and all those West Coast gurus, and Paul was one of those guys. When Mike got here, I was egging him. I said, ‘Paul, this is the next genius, huh? Because all you West Coast guys are geniuses.’ And we started laughing.

“But you could tell then that the guy was into (football). He stayed late, worked hard, did all the (grunt) work. I mean he did all the (grunt) work. And that’s how it starts for all of us. You’ve got to be willing to come in and do whatever they ask you to do, and Mike was good at it. He did it, learned, and that’s why he’s doing a good job up there.”

Don’t count Schottenheimer among those surprised that McCarthy has turned the 6-1 Packers into a contender in the NFC.

“It’s great football and a great football story,” Schottenheimer said. “The thing about it is there’s no fanfare about Mike. I mean, he has, I think, the single most important quality that any team player can have, and that is he doesn’t care who gets the credit. That, in my mind, is a critical and essential quality for anybody who is going to be involved in a team environment, because in this business there’s so much focus and so much attention that if you have people that are interested in reading about themselves in the newspaper or watching themselves on television, you’re not going to have a good teammate. And Mike doesn’t care about that.”

How McCarthy will handle success if the Packers continue to tear through the regular season is anybody’s guess, but Schottenheimer believes McCarthy will avoid the trap of changing with success.

“I don’t have any doubt he’ll (avoid) that,” Schottenheimer said. “We believe in the old adage, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ But more important than that is he has great confidence in what he’s doing and the way it needs to get done. There’s flexibility certainly because anybody with any reasonable amount of intelligence is going to operate on that basis, but I think where Mike will excel is when adversity sets in, because he understands that there is a plan, and you don’t want to get too far off track.

“With Mike McCarthy, when you open the package the first day, it’s there, and it’s not going to change.”