Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
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All right, good afternoon. Thanks, everybody, for being with us on this special occasion. It may be irrelevant to some of you, but I like the fact that today is my grandfather's birthday, and he would have loved the fact that we're hiring a guy from Greenfield to be our coach. But having said that, him being from Greenfield had little to do with our decision here.
It's really great to be able to hire somebody who has such a tremendous winning track record and won everywhere he's been. And so it gives us great confidence to welcome Mike. And so I am happy to introduce Mike McCarthy, the next head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Mike.
All right, here we go. Thank you, Art. I thought I'd at least be able to get started. Oftentimes, coaches and players, you put on new team colors, and it takes a minute to feel comfortable in those new colors. But to be blessed beyond any measure, one day to put on the colors you wore since you brought home. I apologize. Right, I told you not to sit my family down here in front.
This is so unfair when you come home from Mercy Hospital.
Mike McCarthy introduces himself or reintroduces himself to Pittsburgh, Bob. He was born in Mercy Hospital. How about you, Mercy Hospital? My daughter was born at McGee. No, I was born in Aliquippa Hospital. Aliquippa Hospital. Was Ron there? Just to oversee things? I was there. Bob, impressions. That's what we're going with early today. I mean, the story to me.
is what he said about Aaron Rodgers. That's the football story. There's a football story, and then there's a first impression. Yeah, the first impression, I thought he was authentically Pittsburgh. And I think people love to see that. Especially fans who are not 100% X's and O's, and they just want to see stuff like that. They get emotional with him. He's a very emotional guy, which I like.
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Chapter 2: What does Mike McCarthy's hiring mean for the Steelers?
And how many of us have dreams that you want to come true no matter what it is? And this for him is it. It tugged at the heartstrings, there's no doubt. And I guess I'm a sucker for that. So what I would say about the impression, he absolutely won that part of the news conference. Like you said, his authentic self out there crying. Although I think some people look at that and recoil from it.
I do. You've seen some of the reaction. For me... For me, when I see that, I'm like, oh, my God, this is unbelievable. This is great stuff. This is real. There's nothing at all fake about this. And here's the conclusion I draw. He's going to be an easy guy for people to root for. And it won't take long if things go well.
They open the season, I don't know, pick one of their opponents on the road with a win, come home and win a game. He's going to have people eaten out of the palm of his hand, Bob. He will. He's an easy guy to root for. He's a Pittsburgher right down to his core. And he's very real. So all of that is true. You never get a chance to make a second impression.
That part of it, to me at least, was a good first impression. But then the football stuff happened. And to me, the rest of it, to borrow an old Mike Tomlin phrase, is elevator music. All I heard was Benzie off the top rope and Mike McCarthy saying Aaron Rodgers. Would you be interested?
Chapter 3: How do fans feel about Mike McCarthy's first press conference?
Definitely. I mean, to me, we can start with both those things with our listeners out there. And I'll say this, too. I'm not going to say that phrase anymore, Bob. Of course, if I'm saying it, then I'll say this. It sounds so like official and like a proclamation. Who gives a crap? But here's my thoughts anyway.
Listening to Pony and Mueller yesterday, the immediate reaction was ferociously negative from their callers, from their callers. Different story with The Morning Show. And a different story with the Twitter poll that I put out, about 1,500 people. Now, that's not a scientific measurement. That's a lot of people. It is. Any political poll you'll see is not going to be many more than that.
There's a margin of error, let's say, but that's still a good number. Do you feel better, worse, or the same about the McCarthy hire after this news conference? 1,500 people so far. 45% say the same. Okay, so just about half say, I feel the same. But of the rest, a full 41% said better and only 14% said worse.
So my feelings going in, I think, I don't know if you had the same, are justified or at least turned out to be true that he was going to win the news conference and that the vibe would shift at least a little bit. Do you sense the same? Did you do a show last night? We did. How was that? What was the vibe there? The vibe was the same. I mean, people were, you know, impressed.
With the fact that this guy's coming home, his heartstrings are out there, it's real, it's authentic, that sort of stuff. And I like that. I do. I also think the guy has a pretty good resume that people like as well. We got that take. But then you have to go out and do it. And then you have to change what has become, you know, a regular kind of routine for the last decade.
And that's what has to change. Now, whether or not it could happen now or in the future, it may not happen in the first year. And I think people will then... complain because it's been a continuation. But you'd agree he's here to win in the first year. Yes. He spoke of it. Art has spoken of it. It's a veteran roster. He's a great guy for a veteran roster.
It's harder to do it when you don't have necessary pieces. And again, the quarterback thing is the one piece. I'll tell you this much. if he doesn't at least get to 9-8 the way Tomlin did, it will have to be viewed as a miserable failure because Tomlin even got to 8-8 with Duck Hodges.
So no matter who the quarterback is, he better for a lot of people and for Art, and for Art I would think, and Omar, he better keep that non-losing streak alive.
They need to win a playoff game.
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Chapter 4: What challenges does McCarthy face as the new Steelers coach?
You know, we got to move ahead with the guys we have. That's a conversation for a later day. Sure. That was not it. Here's Benzie from the top rope once again. I'm not asking this from any other perspective except your own personal preference. In your best case scenario, do you want Aaron Rodgers back as your quarterback next year?
That's nice the way he asked that, right? That was slick. But, I mean, definitely. I mean, I don't see why you wouldn't. But, you know, I think just like anything, you know, knowing Aaron long enough going through seasons, you know, I think when players, you know, to see Mel Blunt here, I mean, when guys ā or up at that stage of their career, they need to step away and decompress.
I think that's very important. The game is so emotional, you know, what these men commit to and what they put into it. I think that time away is important, and I have spoken to Aaron, and so that's really where we are there. But I was able to sit back and watch the games. I watched most of the Pittsburgh games on TV, and I thought he was a great asset for the team.
Did you listen to it differently at all that time? No. If you had to put a thought bubble over him or how he was really trying to say it, to me it was... What are you, crazy? Of course Aaron Rodgers is a great option. He laughed when he said it. He said, definitely.
Why are you even asking?
Because he's doing an indifference to Rodgers. It's his decision to make, and I don't think he's in a position to say one thing or the other. So he's not going to say, absolutely not, knowing that Aaron may say, yes, I'm coming back. And then that becomes a big catastrophe. Now, the way Benzie asked it was interesting, too, in your best case scenario. And that sort of speaks to your side, Bob.
He said, yeah, in my best case scenario, sure, maybe. But that's not what I heard. I know. That's how I viewed it. That's how I soaked it in. It's literally what it is. If you read it, just read it like you would do in a newspaper column or in a tweet. You would think definitely. That word means definite. I don't know. It seemed to me like it's still very much up in the air.
I hear you, and it's interesting how people ā hear the same thing and interpret it differently. So again, how did you interpret it out there at 928-9370? But most importantly, Bob, what do you think of the idea? Clearly the idea that the Steelers have said they're open to it. They hired Mike McCarthy, who people are now on the record as saying if there's one guy he'd play for, it's McCarthy.
And then you heard that answer. But regardless of how you interpret it, would that be a good idea? To bring Rodgers back? Yes. I think I'm to the point, I said this to you before, that it's time to move on from that. I think ultimately they have to figure this out. And why waste more time? I think Aaron has shown that he still has the arm to do it. I know everyone in that room liked him.
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Chapter 5: What factors contribute to Mike McCarthy's coaching reputation?
That's what I'm getting at. Maybe it got to that point where it's like, man, this is the guy. He has everything that we want, that passion, that ability of a resume to be able to make a quarterback successful, and a guy who has ā Honestly, he has the same exact resume as Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh, but he's considered a boob and the other ones are considered Hall of Famers.
So he's a pretty doggone good coach. Who considers him a boob? I think everybody in Dallas. Is the fact that his resume is similar to Tomlin's, is that the good news or the bad news? Well, how do people view Tomlin overall? Here? Best coach ever. I mean, nationally. I think that started to fade with every lopsided playoff loss. Like you just said in New York, Harbaugh, they're just thrilled.
For sure, because of the situation he walked into.
Chapter 6: How does McCarthy's experience compare to other coaches?
And McCarthy, it's like, not him again. They're the same guys almost. Sean Payton has the same resume, too. They're all the same. And they're all good coaches. He's a genius, right? Well, he's winning playoff games at the moment. No, I'm just saying, but it's similar in that all of them have won Super Bowl, and the rest of it is just... They've got the very similar records.
But here's the thing about McCarthy, too, that I like. He also got to other NFC Championship games, and some of them are very closely contested. I think there was an overtime. I know, but he has one playoff win in his last seven years as a coach. No, I get it, but I'm saying that he's been in Green Bay just because the one Super Bowl, he's...
taken teams that have been on the precipice of winning others. He just never got to that point.
Chapter 7: What is the significance of McCarthy's connection to Pittsburgh?
With Aaron Rodgers in his prime. Well, yeah, but he might not have drafted Aaron Rodgers, but I would say that he helped develop him, right? It's only a year or so in, right? I think I would say a lot of people would have developed maybe the most talented quarterback prospect of all time. I do give him credit there, but he has one playoff win in his last seven years as a coach. Yeah.
Dallas is almost... You know, Dallas is a place that hasn't won a playoff game since ā no, not a playoff game. They won one. They won since, what, 95 or whatever it was. Yeah, and he was the one who won it. So that's not like it's a slam dunk over there as well as being a team that wins a lot of playoff games in Dallas.
But, you know, as for McCarthy, I mean, okay, how do you explain a guy like Cooper Rush? They threw off the bench and he won like four out of five games of keeping in playoff contention a couple years ago. How does he identify Aaron Brooks in 2000 to make him into a pretty good quarterback for a three, four-year span?
Chapter 8: How does McCarthy plan to develop the team's future quarterback?
So there's both ways to that. I mean, he can identify him. Put it this way, and one more thing I'm putting is this way. We're doing it three times. Out of all the other coaching candidates, who would you trust the most of identifying, drafting, acquiring, and developing a quarterback of the future? McCarthy has to be way above there.
Just because Sheilhaus hasn't done it yet and he hasn't been a position to do it. Didn't he identify Alex Smith as a superior prospect to Aaron Rodgers way back when? Wasn't he just like the quarterback's coach or offensive assistant or something? That's how the story goes. Well, that was like 1990 whatever. But, okay, I mean, you could have some misses as well.
But what I'm saying, out of the group that they were interviewing, I'm trust McCarthy doing it more than any of the other guys. Anthony Weaver is going to do this? Which quarterback? Would he still be a defensive coordinator? I haven't heard that. They're going to have to. Joe and I were talking about defensive guys and Jim Schwartz being one of those guys.
He's under contract, but they can make a move to get him, ask permission, can't they? They wanted to. That's tough. They would have to let him go. He would have to say, I don't want to work there, but then they would have to pay. I don't know how that would work.
I know, but if you're still under contract, you're still under contract unless the new coach says, I don't want you.
How about if you say I have an opportunity to be the same position in Pittsburgh but with the table of associated head coach? Well, you probably would have to add something like that. That's what I mean. But in Cleveland, why would you let him go? But if Munkin comes in and says, I don't want this guy here, then of course I would definitely look at him.
There's only two names I've heard for sure.
My biggest takeaway about his hiring here is that he's an offensive mind, and I was hoping that would be the way they went. You can always figure out ways to do what you've got to do on defense, but they needed a fresh offensive approach, and I think this guy offers that. How about Clint Kubiak? Would he have been a candidate you've been interested in? I like him.
I would have taken him, too, as an interview just to see where it would take me because what he does out there has been very, very interesting. I don't know how interested they were, and I don't think they were very interested in him, really. At least right now. But offense was important. I thought that's ā How many years ā so you're giving him credit for Aaron Brooks, yes?
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