Aaron Rodgers needs surgery to repair the broken right collarbone that he injured in the Packers’ 23-10 loss to the Vikings on Sunday, and Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy isn’t happy about it.
“I didn’t like the hit,” McCarthy said Monday, via the Green Bay Press Gazette. “I had a chance to watch it last night on the plane. He’s out of the pocket. He’s clearly expecting to get hit. To pin him to the ground like that, I felt it was an illegal act. To sit here and lose any of your players on something like that, it doesn’t feel very good.
“Yeah, I didn’t like the hit. It was unnecessary.”
Watch: McCarthy on Barr’s hit (starts at the 6:15 mark in the video below).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLgweGJq5m0
Vikings coach Mike Zimmer doesn’t think Barr’s hit was anywhere near illegal or unnecessary.
“I don’t know what the scrutiny is, we’re playing football,” Zimmer said. “It’s unfortunate he got hurt, but I think everything was above board. We’re not a dirty football team – we’ll never be a dirty football team as long as I’m here. We’re going to play within in the rules. Sometimes things happen.”
Technically, Barr’s hit on Rodgers was completely legal because he was out of the pocket. Whether it was necessary or not is an entirely different conversation. You be the judge.
