Cowboys Coach Reveals 'Special' Locker Room Autographed Ball Gestures: 'It's a Brotherhood!'
The Dallas Cowboys have finished their regular season with a third consecutive 12-5 season and attention now turns to the playoffs.
But before that gets started, it is important to remind ourselves of how the Cowboys got here - by playing good football.
Dak Prescott had an MVP-caliber season, CeeDee Lamb broke several franchise records, Jake Ferguson emerged as a genuine TE1, and others in Rico Dowdle and Jalen Tolbert also had their time in the sun.
In what is a unique way of acknowledging the collective achievement offensively, coordinator Brian Schottenheimer gave an insight into how the Cowboys locker room goes about recognizing achievements on the field.
“One of the cool things that we started doing is we started this year, we score a touchdown, we keep the ball,” Schottenheimer said. “We bring those guys up on Friday, the guys that scored the touchdown and then we have them pick someone that helped them get there and they sign the football, both of them. We put the ball where we can see it.”
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
That is a nice touch, but wait, there's more and it gets deeper.
With so many moving parts within an organization from player personnel, coaches, equipment staff, and so on, what Schottenheimer revealed next just shows the level of togetherness that this version of the Cowboys has.
“It's really been cool to see the coaches that have been brought up there, the linemen that have been brought up there and it's just different," Schottenheimer said. "CeeDee [Lamb] might pick Mike Solari (offensive line coach), Brandon Cooks might pick Will Harriger (quality control/offensive assistant) and it speaks to the special group that we have."
It isn't just the players that credit other players when things go their way on the field, but the coaches that help them get there. This is a special touch as for the most part, coaches who work in the background might not get the recognition of other people within the organization.
And Schottenheimer knows it.
"It takes all 11 of us on the field but everybody's involved in getting us in the end zone and getting the ball distributed," Schottenheimer said. "So there's a selflessness about this group and more importantly than that there's a special bond between not just the players but the coaches and the players as well. It's a true brotherhood.”
Schottenheimer has given us a little insight into what makes this Dallas locker room tick and when everyone is pulling in the same direction, good things usually follow.
With the playoffs beginning, the Cowboys will no doubt be leaning on each other and it won't matter who makes the plays, as the selflessness and the "brotherhood" is what has been a crucial part in driving this team to another postseason campaign.
