Mike McCarthy says thank you to Green Bay fans with full-page ad

GREEN BAY -- Former Green Bay Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy has taken out a full-page ad in several newspapers to thank fans, according to a report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Packers News.



“It’s hard to articulate the impact this job had on me and my family,” McCarthy said in the ad, according to PackersNews.com. “From the beginning, Green Bay has welcomed me with open arms. I met my beautiful wife Jessica here and raised our family of 5 children who will always call Green Bay home. Thank you for the immense outpouring of love our family received this week and throughout our time here. This speaks to the quality of folks in the State of Wisconsin. Coach Lombardi said it best. ‘Green Bay is all about Faith, Family and Football.'”

McCarthy went on to say, according to the report, "There is an unmistakable pride that runs through the bloodline of all Green Bay Packers, and that is why it's not the bricks ... but the Packers people and the pride they have for this organization that I will miss the most."

The report says McCarthy's advertisement will be in the Saturday, Dec. 7 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Green Bay Press-Gazette and other Gannett papers.

Most fans expected the Green Bay Packers to fire Mike McCarthy at the end of season. It's the timing of McCarthy's departure that has made headlines. It happened with four games left, after the Packers fell to the Arizona Cardinals at Lambeau Field on Sunday, Dec. 2 -- the team's first loss of the season at home.

The last time the Packers made a head coaching change mid-season was 1953.