GREEN BAY, Wis. -- It was Aug. 23, 1999. Monday Night Football on the University of Wisconsin campus. Eight plays into an otherwise meaningless preseason Super Bowl XXXII rematch between the Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers.
Pass-rusher John Mobley had just come charging through the left side of the line, untouched. Brett Favre had gotten the ball away, but not without banging his right thumb on Mobley’s shoulder pad, ending his evening – but fortunately for the Packers, not his season. On the Camp Randall Stadium sideline, the team’s new quarterbacks coach – a young, 5 o’clock shadowed fellow named Mike McCarthy – shouted for the kid with the prematurely receding hairline who was a long shot for the backup job.