Green Bay, Wis. ? Wouldn’t you know it, a cell phone went off during Mike McCarthy’s introductory news conference, the same annoyance that not long ago caused Mike Sherman’s public-relations staff to shut down proceedings. Being the new guy with a favorable first impression to make, McCarthy kept talking and smiling for the cameras.

All the same, you were left with the feeling that McCarthy wouldn’t defer to his PR people the next time someone couldn’t remember to shut off the bleeping phone. McCarthy is the head coach of the Green Bay Packers for a number of reasons, not the least of which is general manager Ted Thompson’s personal comfort level with the man.

“I like that Pittsburgh macho stuff,” Thompson said. “He’s a tough guy.”

More than once during his opening news conference, McCarthy invoked his rough-and-tumble Steeltown upbringing and how his neighborhood reminded him of this part of the country. He is not the first Wisconsin-based coach to draw that comparison, as Pittsburgh guys George Karl and Barry Alvarez found that such familiarity bred success.

In the roughly 45 minutes McCarthy took questions, it became abundantly apparent that his live personality is completely different from the staid Sherman’s, but that is no guarantee McCarthy will even outlast his three-year contract, much less fulfill his stated objective of restoring the Vince Lombardi trophy to its place of origin.

The only thing that became crystal clear was that Thompson and Sherman did not get along and that the GM felt compelled to find his own kind of guy, inasmuch as you can plumb the depths of another’s character in a five- to seven-hour interview session. In finding his football soul mate, Thompson said the two spoke about matters that hardcore grid-heads would not typically discuss.

Such as?

“It wasn’t like chick-movie stuff,” Thompson said. “It’s about what you believe in, what’s most important to you. When you ask those questions, you can go way down deep in a person’s soul.”

This is risky territory, taking such a gamble on a relatively obscure career assistant based on a gut feeling from a half-day’s conversation.

Thompson gave the keys to one of the most lavish kingdoms in all of professional sports to someone most Packers fans couldn’t distinguish from Mike McCarthy the musician or the Mike McCarthy who once ran for alderman of New Haven, Conn., and nothing Mike McCarthy the coach said Thursday will change that perception until the Green Bay Packers begin behaving like a real football team once more.

McCarthy issued a generic and somewhat oblique mission statement, and he said all the right things. But who doesn’t under these circumstances? What was he going to say, that it was his goal to drive the Packers so far into the ground that their remnants would be sold at a VFW auction?

The only thing you could take exception to was McCarthy’s contention that “this is not a rebuilding job.” Clearly it is, but the next time anyone representing the Packers admits to that is when an acknowledgment of Jim McMahon’s kinder side emanates from Green Bay.