National Football League

McCarthy miffed when asked about keeping WRs happy

Published Oct. 13, 2011 12:12 a.m. ET

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Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy has just about had it with people scrutinizing the way his team shares the ball among its talented group of receivers.

Asked Wednesday about the relatively limited number of snaps veteran Donald Driver has been getting in recent games, McCarthy called the line of questioning ''a bunch of garbage.''

The issue of getting everybody involved in the Packers' passing game has come up a handful of times already this season, and McCarthy said sternly that he won't apologize for having ''too many guys'' to throw the ball to.

''Donald's very proud,'' McCarthy said. ''He's been a great player, (he'll) continue to be a great player here. But we have a lot of people and we're using them all. That's the reality of it. Every week it's somebody else that we're going to pick at because he didn't have the numbers he had the week before. Frankly, I think it's a bunch of garbage.''

It certainly wasn't anything approaching the rants by Jim Mora or Dennis Green that went viral on the Internet. But it was somewhat out of character for the Packers coach, who keeps a steady public persona and rarely makes waves in his news conferences.

''It's what it is,'' McCarthy said, raising his voice slightly. ''Now, do they want the ball? Yeah. Yeah, they want the ball. They all want the ball. And if they don't want the ball then I have a real issue with them. That's part of playing in this league. But every week to come in here and a guy scores three touchdowns one week and he doesn't have any the next week, and that's an issue? I mean, what are we doing here? Those are good, positive things about your team. And I'm not going to continue to sit here and answer this thing every week.''

Sharing the ball has become something of an issue for the Packers early in the season.

Wide receiver James Jones said after the season-opening victory over New Orleans that he felt he should have gotten more snaps. Tight end Jermichael Finley expressed frustration to reporters after a Week 4 win over Denver, grousing that the team wasn't able to get him the ball more despite being double-teamed.

Aaron Rodgers has been asked about the challenges of keeping all his receivers happy several times, and usually says that he simply throws to whomever is open.

Driver said he isn't concerned.

''I'm fine with it,'' Driver said. ''I think you have to get to a point where you can't worry about how many balls you get. Because you start worrying about how many balls you get, that's when you start losing games. Then you put pressure on Aaron to try to make sure everyone stays happy.''

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