GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Green Bay Packers fired Coach Mike McCarthy and made offensive coordinator Joe Philbin the interim head coach.
The move, announced by team president Mark Murphy, came after a stunning 20-17 loss on Sunday to the Arizona Cardinals, dropping Green Bay to 4-7-1.
Murphy, in a statement, said the 2018 season “has not lived up to the expectations and standards of the Green Bay Packers. As a result, I made the difficult decision to relieve Mike McCarthy of his role as head coach, effective immediately.”
Murphy said the process of hiring the next head coach would begin immediately.
McCarthy was in his 13th season as coach. The Packers won the Super Bowl under McCarthy in the 2010 season and reached the playoffs eight years in a row from 2009-16, but they haven’t made it back to another Super Bowl, and now they’re on the verge of a second straight losing season.
He finishes with a record of 125-77-2.
“Mike has been a terrific head coach and leader of the Packers for 13 seasons, during which time we experienced a great deal of success on and off the field,” Murphy said.
In 2016, the Packers started 4-6, then won eight straight to get to the NFC title game, losing to the Atlanta Falcons. Green Bay finished 7-9 and had its playoff streak stopped in 2017, when Aaron Rodgers missed extensive time because of a broken collarbone.
This year, Rodgers hurt his left knee in the season opener, though he is feeling better now. Receivers Randall Cobb and Geronimo Allison have missed time because of injuries. The same issues kept popping up for the offense, most glaringly, third-down failures and a lack of explosive plays.
RUNNING BACK Kareem Hunt acknowledged that he misled the Kansas City Chiefs about his role in a February assault in a Cleveland hotel that led to his release Friday.
During a live interview with ESPN on Sunday, the NFL’s reigning rushing champion also said league officials never spoke to him about the incident while conducting their own investigation, and that he never saw the security camera video until TMZ Sports posted it Friday.
In the course of a few hours, Hunt went from preparing for Sunday’s game in Oakland to being cut by the Chiefs. First he was sent home from the practice facility, then he was placed on the NFL’s Commissioner Exemption List, and finally he was summoned back to the team facility and told that he was being released.
“They believed that I lied to them. I lied to them,” Hunt said. “They pretty much said we love you, everybody cares about you, and just we have to let you go. It was a tough conversation. And the Chiefs did what was right. I made a poor decision and I’m willing to take full responsibility.”
In the grainy, graphic video, Hunt is seen getting into an argument with a woman and several men step in to hold him back. He later pushes one of the men, knocking down a woman that Hunt admitted he did not know, and eventually kicks her while she lays on the ground.
“The Chiefs are right. I didn’t tell them everything,” Hunt said. “My actions caused this and I really wish I could apologize to them and let them know there’s no hard feelings.”
BRONCOS: Cornerback Chris Harris Jr. cracked a bone in his lower right leg, but it’s unclear how long he’ll be sidelined. He’ll have tests in Denver on Monday.
Harris said no surgery is anticipated, and it’s possible he could be back by the end of December.
PANTHERS: Pro Bowl tight end Greg Olsen re-injured his right foot, the latest blow to the 33-year-old’s bid to return to form following surgery to repair the same foot last season.
“I ruptured my plantar fascia. The plantar fascia on the bottom of my foot popped. It’s just something we’ve dealt with since I’ve come back,” said Olsen.
He missed nine games last season because of a broken foot, then re-broke it this year, though he didn’t have surgery and missed only three games.
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