Star Receiver Seems to Forget Mike McCarthy Doesn’t Coach Packers

Keenan Allen was just one of the many NFL stars reacting on social media Monday morning to news of the Dallas Cowboys hiring Mike McCarthy as their next head coach.

The only problem? The star wide receiver seemed to forget Mike McCarthy no longer coaches the Green Bay Packers.

In a since-deleted tweet that the internet was kind enough to preserve, Allen appeared to be calling out McCarthy’s decision to take a new coaching job with “a whole playoff game coming up,” giving the impression he believes McCarthy is still running the show in Green Bay. He only seemed to give credence to his mistake when he quickly deleted his retweet of the original news from ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

McCarthy was fired in December 2018 with four games left in the regular season after the Packers dropped a home game to the 13-place Arizona Cardinals, ending his nine-season tenure and paving the way for first-year head coach Matt LaFleur to take the reins last January.

While the mistake would be a little easier to defend if Allen hadn’t recently matched up against Green Bay, the Chargers hosted them in Los Angeles earlier this year and won 26-11 to secure one of their only victories of the 2019 season. He caught three passes for 40 yards in that win.

There’s also always the possibility Allen thought the Cowboys had an upcoming playoff game and was referring to the coaching change with the assumption Dallas had a place in the postseason, but that seems like a bit of a stretch. Either way, it just goes to show mistakes happen to the best of us, even those of us who are multi-million-dollar athletes.

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Allen Has Limited Experience With Packers

Allen, who caught for 1,000 yards for a third straight year in 2019, has only ever played the Packers twice in his seven-year NFL career, but it would make sense for him to remember his first outing when McCarthy was around much clearer.

When the Packers and Chargers met in 2015, Allen caught 14 passes for 157 yards and helped keep his team in the competition against the hosts at Lambeau Field. It was the second-most receiving yards in a single game at that point in his career and remains his fifth-most ever in a career that has only gotten better with age.

Allen has bigger things to worry about than the Packers after his own team skidded to a 5-11 finish and fell multiple games behind the other three teams in the AFC West. The Chargers aren’t looking to change coaches, but there is some discussion about him potentially having a new quarterback throwing to him next season if the team moves on from Philip Rivers — the only quarterback Allen has ever known in the NFL.

Regardless of whether the Chargers go with a younger quarterback or a proven veteran — Tom Brady, anyone? — Allen will be an essential piece to the picture as the most solid member of the team’s receiving corps. His leadership will be even more necessary if Melvin Gordon also leaves during the offseason. And, on the flip side, if the Chargers do stick with Rivers, he has the same passer who has helped him surpass 1,000 yards in four of his seven total seasons.

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