Cowboys Are 'A Football Disaster!' Fire McCarthy? Hire Belichick? Jerry Jones Can't Ignore Packers Playoff Debacle
ARLINGTON - I've made fun of weeks and months and even years of "if'' rumors involving the Dallas Cowboys' firing of coach Mike McCarthy, mostly because as it regards the boss who this year led “America’s Team” to a playoff spot for a third straight season, the "if's'' seemed so outrageous.
I have said in short that the firing of McCarthy would require a "football disaster,'' a "loss of the locker room,'' a "50-0 debacle.''
Will Sunday's playoff embarrassment by a score of Green Bay ..., Dallas, do?
But seriously, now? I will concede this about our media brothers and sisters who have for weeks and months and even years continued to “report” that McCarthy would be dumped (in favor of Bill Belichick or whomever): If y'all predicting this? This somnambulant effort in which every single member of the Packers, from the coach down to the kicker, was better than his Dallas counterpart?
More power to you. You were right. I was wrong.
Now we move on to owner Jerry Jones' evaluation of the McCarthy era but of this game, too - and yes, maybe this game in a vacuum, because 12-5, 12-5 and 12-5 really isn't good enough if a team never gets over the hump.
Or if a team does what happened Sunday at AT&T Stadium - in a first home loss in the last 17 outings! - when it turns a "hump'' into Mount Everest.
I have covered in this space, in-depth, ever angle of this fire-McCarthy concept. ... all focused on a "what-if-Dallas-disaster-strikes'' scenario that I really did not see happening.
And now Jerry, very much against his plan, must do the same. ... only now through the prism of this 60-minute horror show.
Part of the evaluation can be about Belichick, a move the McCarthy critics so crave. But make sure to examine why the legendary Patriots coach, 71, hasn't fielded a good team in half-a-decade, OK?
So Mike Vrabel, Jim Harbaugh and all young hotshots, too. All measured against McCarthy. A new prism.
As boos cascaded down on the home team as third-quarter's end, with Dallas trailing by 25 points (oops, I typed too soon - now it's 32 points to start the fourth) Jerry's mind surely allowed itself to wonder and to wander. Jones, 81, likes to reference his own mortality by joking that "I ain't got time for a bad time.''
And this showing? With this "Super Bowl-worthy'' bunch? It might be as bad as it's ever been for "America's Team.'' Which means I'm done making fun of any idea as it relates to a change in leadership.
