GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Packers coach Matt LaFleur might have found the best way to avoid players fighting at Wednesday’s joint practice against the Arizona Cardinals.
It involves him and the opposing coach, his younger brother Mike.
“If there’s an issue, I’m going to tell the guys, ‘Hey, you come tag me in. They can tag in my brother. And we’ll throw down on the 50,’” Matt LaFleur said Monday.
The LaFleur parents, Denny and Kristi, might not like that. But they will get to watch their two sons on the same field as head coaches for the first time. Matt said his parents will probably look like Christmas trees because they’ll be wearing Packers’ green and Cardinals’ red. Denny and Kristi LaFleur, who raised their sons in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, now live in Green Bay.
Matt is entering his eighth season as the Packers coach, while Mike is in his first.
That doesn’t mean Mike, 39, is letting his older brother by 7 years dictate everything.
“He’s quick to criticize everything that I put on the schedule,” Matt said. “So, he’s like, ‘Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that? We never do this.’ And I was like, ‘All right, Mike, you’ve got all the answers.’ Nah, it’s been healthy, it’s been good. There’s been give-and-take on both sides for sure.”
While there’s plenty of business to be done, including Friday’s preseason finale between the Packers and Cardinals at Lambeau Field, the brothers LaFleur will spend some time together this week. In fact, Matt said the entire coaching staffs from both teams will get together Wednesday night.
“I think it’s going to be pretty special, but at the end of the day, we’re just looking to try to get good work on both sides,” Matt said. “Certainly, always going to prioritize the Green Bay Packers but if there is another team in the National Football League that I’ll be rooting for, it will be the Arizona Cardinals.”
One thing Matt doesn’t have to worry about, or at least he hopes not, is the tape from Wednesday’s practice getting leaked. He has been concerned in the past about the practice film getting passed around to other teams.
“I think every situation’s a little bit different in terms of who you’re going against and who they’ve got on their staffs and the connections between other staffs, because I know all these guys, they all talk,” Matt said. “But I think when it comes to this situation, I don’t have any hesitation or reservations.”
