LaFleurs feel grateful that their first head coaching matchup is coming in the preseason

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Divided loyalties meant a divided wardrobe for the parents of Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur and Arizona Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur as their teams held a joint practice Wednesday.

Denny and Kristi LaFleur were just happy this first head coaching matchup between the two brothers doesn’t count in the standings. The Packers and Cardinals also meet in an exhibition game Friday at Lambeau Field.

“This is easy street,” said Denny LaFleur, a former Central Michigan assistant coach. “It really is. … But next year they’ll have to play (in the regular season), and that will be like cutting things in half. I wish them both the best and then when they do play in a real NFL game where it counts, then, hey the best team wins that day. That’s how you’ve got to look at it.”

Denny LaFleur wore a Cardinal red polo shirt with white shorts Wednesday while his wife was in a white top with Packers green shorts. The LaFleurs’ father also wore a Packers visor to go with a Cardinals wristband and a Green Bay watch. He gave a Cardinals hat to his nephew.

“It’s surreal, but I feel this way: They’ve earned it,” Denny LaFleur said. “They worked their butts off. And ever since they were little kids as they grew up, they were on the sideline when I was coaching.”

Matt LaFleur, who is 46 years old, said he envisioned this possibility a couple of years ago as his younger brother moved up the assistant coaching ranks.

Mike LaFleur, 39, was an offensive coordinator for the New York Jets from 2021-22 and Los Angeles Rams from 2023-25 before the Cardinals hired him.

Even with the age gap between the siblings, Matt LaFleur says that “I’m as close to him as anybody.”

“I think he’s done a great job,” said Matt LaFleur, who is entering his eighth season at Green Bay. “He’s true to who he is. He’s a great human being, a great father, I think he’s got an exceptional football mind, and I think he does things the right way.”

The LaFleurs said their relationship got closer after Matt became a Central Michigan graduate assistant while Mike was a senior at nearby Mount Pleasant (Michigan) High School. It reached another level when the LaFleur brothers worked together on Dan Quinn’s Atlanta staff in 2015 and the Falcons’ Super Bowl season of 2016.

“It was a different time in our lives and we got to spend every single day together,” Mike LaFleur said. “And we hadn’t done that since I was a kid, so there was a learning curve with that.”

Now that they’re both head coaches, the LaFleur brothers are frequently communicating and keeping tabs with each other. Mike LaFleur mentioned the pointers he’s received from his older brother.

“Just handle the storms,” the Cardinals coach said. “He’s given me a ton of advice. Also, at the same time, knowing kind of when to step away and let me kind of go through the ringer a little bit. He knows he doesn’t have to say too much. He knows if I need him, he’ll be the first call all the time.”

Green Bay is seeking a fourth straight playoff berth and Arizona is coming off four straight losing seasons, so it came as no surprise that the Packers dominated the early portion of this joint practice.

But the momentum changed as the day wore on. Arizona decisively won the two-minute drills that ended practice.

Green Bay rookie cornerback Brandon Cisse exemplified the Packers’ up-and-down day. He intercepted Jacoby Brissett early in the joint practice, but Marvin Harrison Jr. beat him for a touchdown during the two-minute period.

“To go against somebody like that, it’s going to make you a lot better,” the second-round pick said. “There’s things that you can do better to contest those kind of throws, and he obviously made a hell of a catch.”

This joint practice matched the Cardinals against their former head coach. New Packers defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon went 15-36 in three seasons at Arizona and got fired at the end of the 2025 season.

“It didn’t mean nothing to the guys,” said Cardinals cornerback Max Melton, the younger brother of Packers receiver Bo Melton. “We really forgot he was over there, for real. We just worried about us, and that’s pretty much it.”

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