Coach McCarthy Goal with Cowboys? ‘Consistent Contention’
FRISCO - Mike McCarthy was away from the NFL for a time and re-invented himself, if you will, with work and study - and help from a terrific piece by NFL Network's Tom Pelissero:
In the interview, we hear McCarthy - who guided the Green Bay Packers to a Super Bowl championship in 2010 - speak of the effort to stay on top for a long period of time, of sustained quality, of what we'll call "consistent contention.''
As our SI.com colleague in Green Bay, the plugged-in Bill Huber notes, McCarthy takes pride in the Packers' long, good run.
"Let's just state the facts: I'm a highly successful NFL head coach," McCarthy said during the team's rocky start to 2016, a season that ended in the NFC Championship Game.
It's true, and the Cowboys know it. That NFC title contest was a game played in Dallas. And there were three other trips to NFC Championship Games. From 2009 through 2016, the Packers and Patriots were the only teams to reach the playoffs eight consecutive seasons.
At the time of his firing last season, McCarthy's 125 regular-season wins ranked 27th in NFL history. Of the coaches ahead of him, only seven could beat McCarthy’s winning percentage, a list that includes Hall of Famers Don Shula (.677), George Halas (.682), Curly Lambeau (.631), Paul Brown (.672) and Tony Dungy (.668), plus certain Hall of Fame Bill Belichick (.681) and Hall of Fame candidate Bill Cowher (.623).
In being the Jones family's choice to replace Jason Garrett, McCarthy's challenge in Dallas, though, isn't just about "goodness''; Garrett accomplished much of that.
The next step for Mike McCarthy's Dallas Cowboys? The idea would be "greatness.''
