On Saturday night, the Packers were on the road in San Francisco to face the 49ers. As the 7th seed, Green Bay was playing with house money and had nothing to lose. The Packers were not supposed to be in this position. During the game, rookie kicker Anders Carlson missed an important field goal and gave San Francisco life.
FOX had the national broadcast of this game and sideline reporter Tom Rinaldi shared some information with the booth. He said that head coach Matt LaFleur made comments about having to pray every time his kicker goes out. These comments were not received well by the media and the head coach claims he was saying it in a joking manner and that Rinaldi portrayed it the wrong way.
Matt LaFleur had to clarify his comments about kicker Anders Carlson to the media
#Packers HC Matt LaFleur says the FOX broadcast relaying that he prays before every FG was “extremely disappointing.”
LaFleur says he was saying it in jest and it was portrayed the wrong way.pic.twitter.com/Dw7WXrYlrz https://t.co/VV7dnvEvFx
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) January 22, 2024
Before LaFleur was able to give his side of the story, it seemed like he had made a big mistake. The Packers played on Saturday night and LaFleur did not speak to the media until today. When a reporter asked him about those comments by FOX, the 44-year-old was “extremely” disappointed with how they portrayed what he said about Anders Carlson. LaFleur claims it was in jest and that he doesn’t do that. Regardless, the missed field goal did end up being costly for the Packers in a 24-21 loss to the 49ers.
During the regular season, Carlson was 27-33 on his field goal attempts. It was his rookie year with Green Bay and a lot was riding on his missed field goal. It gave the Niners the momentum they needed to make a comeback. Every player has a tough moment like this and it’s one Carlson will have to learn from. He’ll need to work incredibly hard this offseason so that he be a reliable kicker for the Packers.
“Extremely Disappointing.”
Packers HC Matt LaFleur rips FOX broadcast for taking kicker joke out of context pic.twitter.com/hi2VrSlD5g
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) January 22, 2024
The season did not end how the Packers would have liked, but they have a lot to build off of. In Jordan Love’s first year as the full-time starter, he excelled and threw for over 4,000 yards and had 32 touchdowns. If not for that missed kick, who knows if Green Bay would be playing in the NFC Championship this weekend. Packers fans should be optimistic about what 2024 holds.
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