Former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy told ESPN on Tuesday that he was "stunned" by the timing of his firing last December and voiced his displeasure with the team for their handling of the situation.

McCarthy was fired in the hours following an upset loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Dec. 2, which dropped the Packers to 4-7-1 and greatly increased their chances of missing the playoffs for a second straight season. The 55-year-old said he knew the franchise could make a change, but did not his expect his 13-year tenure with the team to end in-season.

"If we missed the playoffs, I expected change might happen," McCarthy told ESPN.com in his first sit-down interview since he was fired. "But the timing surprised me. Actually it stunned me. It couldn't have been handled any worse."

McCarthy joined the Packers in 2006 as a first-time head coach and led the team to eight straight playoff appearances from 2009-2016 and won Super Bowl XLV with the team after the 2010 season. He sits second in franchise history with 125 career wins, behind only Curly Lambeau and expected a better exit given his place in the team's history.

"Anytime you lose a close game, it's a difficult time emotionally afterwards, but when you lose a home game at Lambeau Field in December, it's really hard," McCarthy continued. "And that hasn't happened very often. I walked out of my press conference, and I'm thinking about the game, thinking about how our playoff shot was now minimal. That's where my head was at. And when I was told Mark Murphy wanted to see me - and the messenger was cold and the energy was bad. Mark said it was an ugly loss, and it was time to make [a] change. He said something about the offence and the special teams, and he didn't think it was going to get any better. There was no emotion to it. That was hard."

McCarthy was asked about his relationship with quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was critical of play-calling at times last season when the offence struggled. McCarthy served as head coach for every game Rodgers started in his career until he was let go described working with the star quarterback as "challenging, very rewarding and fun."

"In football, there are things that are said on the sideline that stay on the sidelines for players and coaches alike," McCarthy said. "As far as that situation, I honestly am not aware of it. Aaron has always been heavily involved in game-planning each week and scheme design each year. I entrusted him and empowered him more than any other quarterback I've ever been around, especially at the line of scrimmage.

"As far as our relationship, you have to put it through the proper lens like you always have to do with reflection and change. Where there's change, let's be real, especially the way the change happened, there's things that come out after the fact. Things get said. He-said, he-said this and things like that. When I think about my relationship with Aaron, you're talking about 13 years. That's a very long time. It's been a privilege to watch him grow in so many different ways and see him do so many great things on the field and off. To think you can be in a relationship that long and not have any frustrations, that's unrealistic.

"As far as coaching him, I'd use a lot of words. He's challenging, very rewarding and fun. We had a lot of fun. Some of my greatest one-on-one conversations, accomplishments, adjustments and adversity we fought through have been with Aaron. The difficulty in coaching a Hall of Fame quarterback is keeping that connection, the efficiency and the fluency with the other players on offense. They want to do more. They're capable of doing so much more, but the reality is you have to remember is it's the coordination of 11 men on every play. But yeah, it's pretty fun to go through your entire offensive playbook and know you can run everything in there with your quarterback. I mean, that's a joy. His job was to score as many points as he can. My job was to make it all work. We can all grow personally and professionally, but because of the experience I had not only with Aaron but with all my players, I know I'm a much better person and a better coach than I was 13 years ago. I hope Aaron and all the players I coached, I hope they feel the same."

McCarthy interviewed with the New York Jets this off-season, but was beat out for the job by Adam Gase. He will take off the 2019 season but is expected to return to coaching for the 2020 season.