It’s hard to root for your team to lose, especially when they have a winning record halfway through the season – and particularly when they’re not in rebuilding mode. But starting this week, I’ll be rooting against my favorite team – the Green Bay Packers – to lose.

Call me a terrible fan, go ahead. But with Aaron Rodgers out for the rest of the season, this team isn’t going anywhere. After spending over two seasons on the bench, backup quarterback Brett Hundley clearly has some potential … he’s just not ready to consistently lead his teammates to victory. We’ve got nine games left, and I’m sure we could win a few, but it’s highly unlikely we make the playoffs with Hundley under center, and even if we did, there’s no way we advance. A legitimate Super Bowl contender just two weeks ago, we’re probably on our way to our first losing season since 2008.  

Losing today could mean a more promising future tomorrow – just ask Philadelphia 76ers fans who stuck through seasons after season of misery, “trusting the process,” so the team could acquire promising assets like Joel Embiid and Markelle Fultz. Lose now, and Green Bay earns a high draft pick in 2018. Keep winning, and we’re left where we’ve been for most of the Mike McCarthy era: Good, but never quite as good as we really should be.

So yes, I’d like to see us tank. Let’s draft someone who can contribute right away, get healthy along the offensive line and start anew in 2018 ready to contend for a title with Rodgers at the helm. More importantly than that – particularly in the long term – it’s about time the Packers faced some adversity and Mike McCarthy got exposed for who he is: A middling coach whose success in the NFL is almost entirely due to the HOF-level play at the quarterback position.

I don’t think Mike McCarthy will be fired following this season. Without an owner, management in Green Bay is agonizingly slow to enact changes, and people like General Manager Ted Thompson and President Mark Murphy will blame a poor record on Rodgers’ injury. That’s understandable. But fans and coaches and team executives must start talking about a change at the head coaching position. Our offensive scheme lacks creativity and innovation. Constant clock management blunders have cost us wins, often in crucial situations (like the 2015 NFC Championship meltdown in Seattle). We’ve underperformed, year after year after year. Winning only one Super Bowl with one of the greatest passers of all time is unforgivable.

Yet somehow, McCarthy is heralded around the league as an elite head coach. I’ll concede that he’s got a knack for developing quarterbacks. But as the guy, he’s simply not that good; his glaring shortcomings have been masked only by Rodgers’ greatness. If there’s anything good that comes out of what’s bound to be a lost season in 2017, it’s that the league will finally wake up and realize that McCarthy’s days in Green Bay ought to be numbered.

I get it. It sounds crazy to call for the dismissal of a Super Bowl-winning head coach who hasn’t sniffed a losing season in a decade. But simply making the playoffs and bowing with Aaron Rodgers as your quarterback isn’t good enough. Not even close. As a Packer fan, I want Super Bowl victories. Not NFC North Championships followed up with a loss in the divisional round and the inevitable “well, we’ll get it next year.” That’s what Mike McCarthy is good for. We deserve better.

It’s hard to root for your team to tank when you’ve become accustomed to winning seasons year in and year out. But time is ticking, Aaron Rodgers isn’t getting any younger, and if we’re going to take the next step, losing now could mean big gains in the future.

 

Contact Andrew Ziperski at ajzip ‘at’ stanford.edu.