October 30, 2021.
I stood in the front row at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for arguably the saddest Premier League match in history. It had been nicknamed El Sackico, a sarcastic play on the famous El Clásico rivalry between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Tottenham and Manchester United were in free fall, and there was genuine belief that the losing manager would be fired, or, well, "sacked" after the game.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored a breathtaking volley right in front of me, the TV cameras catching my brother throwing his hands in the air like a Larry David moment from Curb Your Enthusiasm.
El Sackico lived up to the billing. The team in red obliterated the team in white, my Spurs, by three goals to nil, and Tottenham manager Nuno Espírito Santo was given his marching orders two days later.
You can forgive me for having some painful flashbacks this week. It's another battle between the team in red, this time the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the team in white, our Packers, in a game that deserves the El Sackico label.
Will the losing head coach get fired on Monday? Perhaps not. Not yet, at least. But the shockwaves of defeat could be just as impactful.
Why there's more pressure on Matt LaFleur than Todd Bowles in Week 4
The Packers and Buccaneers, two teams in turmoil.
Tampa Bay is winless, strengthening the argument that Todd Bowles has outstayed his welcome. His team was spiraling even before Baker Mayfield dislocated his thumb in their Week 3 defeat to the Minnesota Vikings. The injury rules out Mayfield for the Packers' visit on Sunday, with the keys handed to undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels.
Bizarrely, it's almost freeing for the Buccaneers. They now have an excuse built in should they suffer a fourth straight loss. Sure, another defeat might not do much to help Bowles when the Buccaneers eventually decide his fate, but in the short term? It absolutely takes the pressure off.
That's not true of Matt LaFleur.
Losing is an ugly habit, and it's hard to shake. Previous Packers teams have overcome rocky periods, like in 2023, when they overcame a 3-6 start to make the NFC Divisional Round. But can this version of LaFleur's Packers, a team that has suffered relentless body blows and sickening losses, rise from the canvas? Sunday in Tampa Bay will tell us a lot.
El Sackico highlights just how quickly the tide can turn for Matt LaFleur
Life comes at you fast as a head coach. The same was true for Nuno at Tottenham. I was there for his first game – a 1-0 victory over Manchester City on August 15, 2021, the first time the stadium had been full since the pandemic. Son Heung-min curled a beauty into the bottom left corner of Ederson's net, and the Nuno era had liftoff.
There was jubilation. Joy. Belief.
After three games, Spurs sat top of the table, and Nuno was named Premier League Manager of the Month. But then came one defeat, then two, then three. Tottenham couldn't shake the losing habit.
Just 78 days later, he was gone.
It quickly became a toxic environment during El Sackico. Boos echoed around the stadium, much like at Lambeau Field last Thursday night, and Tottenham fans even chanted "you don't know what you're doing" at their own manager. Brutal.
LaFleur would've felt those boos from Packers fans during their humiliating defeat to the Atlanta Falcons. Like Nuno at Spurs, it wasn't about one performance. It was frustration boiling over from a sharp decline and repeated failures, again and again.
Nine months ago, LaFleur had the Packers sitting at 9-3-1, holding a 23-14 third-quarter lead on the road in Denver against an AFC powerhouse. Micah Parsons' arrival had seemingly done the trick, turning seventh-seed hopefuls into legitimate contenders.
Yet in the blink of an eye, the Packers lost Parsons and star right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele to season-ending injuries. Bo Nix rallied the Broncos to a comeback win, and Green Bay has now lost seven of its past eight games.
LaFleur's team has suffered three dramatic collapses, two in Chicago and the other in Minnesota, and the Packers have been outscored 76-38 and surrendered 842 yards in their previous two home games.
"In my whole career, I figured out there are only two states of being as a manager: under siege, or it's coming."
Those were the words of another former Tottenham manager, Ange Postecoglou, when discussing the fragility of being a head coach.
He's right. Coaches are hired to be fired. Even the all-time greats rarely choose their own exit. No matter the heights they reach, it eventually comes crashing down.
LaFleur needs a win. Badly.
Matt LaFleur's decision-making under pressure is becoming harder to ignore
Coaches can make strange decisions as the pressure intensifies and the losing habit grows.
Nuno learned that the hard way during El Sackico. In a desperate attempt to turn the tide, he subbed off energetic forward Lucas Moura for the up-and-down Steven Bergwijn, a decision met with a roar of boos and jeers from the home supporters. I've never seen anything like it.
They had every reason to be frustrated. Moura was the only player who looked like he could threaten Man United's goal. It was, and still is, the defining moment of Nuno's tenure for all the wrong reasons. His body language captured everything. He had the weight of 60,000 Spurs supporters on his shoulders and already looked defeated.
Pressure has also brought out the worst of LaFleur.
Taking points off the board in Minnesota. Calling two Chris Brooks runs after Skyy Moore's big-time return had shifted momentum. Keeping Jordan Love in the game and allowing him to take repeated hits even when victory was out of sight. And that's just this season alone. What about at the end of last season, when LaFleur burned two timeouts in the playoff loss to Chicago?
Once the losses start piling up, the coach's message can become stale, fan frustration intensifies, and the ending becomes inevitable.
Mike McCarthy's Packers spiraled out of control in 2018, losing five out of six, capped by an embarrassing home defeat to the Josh Rosen-led Arizona Cardinals. Green Bay fell to 4-7-1, and just like that, a McCarthy tenure that had brought home a Lombardi Trophy and turned the Packers into serial winners was over.
LaFleur faced questions about his future as early as Week 10 last year. He may have support from above him – team president Ed Policy made that clear in January – but once you lose the fans, a messy departure almost becomes inevitable.
The game Matt LaFleur simply can't afford to lose
This is the critical moment. The Packers get the Buccaneers and then the Chicago Bears, two teams that could start backup quarterbacks. What an opportunity to bounce back and improve to 3-2.
Lose, though, and I hate to think about the reaction, especially with the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions on deck.
I stood in the South Stand during Nuno's first and last game. I took the 30-minute walk down the Tottenham High Road both times. The contrast in emotions and mood in the atmosphere couldn't have been more jarring.
LaFleur entered the 2026 season under pressure. Maybe not internally within 1265, but undoubtedly from the fanbase.
Losing to a winless Buccaneers team with an undrafted rookie at QB would put LaFleur firmly in "under siege" territory. Sunday might not be truly El Sackico, but defeat could push his tenure past the point of no return.
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