Bears get a no on Mike McCarthy — for now
The Bears will have to wait to talk to Mike McCarthy — if they talk to him at all.
The Cowboys declined the Bears’ request to interview McCarthy, their own head coach, for their own vacancy on Tuesday, per ESPN. The Bears asked to permission to speak with him Monday, but the Cowboys hold exclusive negotiating rights with McCarthy until his initial five-year contract expires Jan. 14. If the Cowboys let him leave, then the Bears could speak to McCarthy.
Among active coaches, only the Chiefs’ Andy Reid and the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin have more career victories than McCarthy. Most of his success, including a Super Bowl win, came with the rival Packers. He has a street named after him in the Green Bay area.
That Packers connection made McCarthy an unlikely pairing with the McCaskeys; at the end of his press conference Tuesday, chairman George McCaskey said “Go Birds,” a reference to the Eagles. They host the Packers in Round 1 of the playoffs on Sunday.
McCarthy, who calls plays for the Cowboys, is 49-35 in five years with them. Dallas went 7-10 this year and used three different starting quarterbacks.