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Report: Still-Standing Garrett Hasn’t Yet Finished Cowboys Players ‘Exit Interviews’

It’s Day 4 of ‘The Star Held Hostage,’ And Coach Jason Garrett Hasn’t Yet Completed Cowboys Players’ ‘Exit Interviews’
Mike Fisher|
Report: Still-Standing Garrett Hasn’t Yet Finished Cowboys Players ‘Exit Interviews’
Report: Still-Standing Garrett Hasn’t Yet Finished Cowboys Players ‘Exit Interviews’

FRISCO - As of Day 4 of ‘The Star Held Hostage,’ coach Jason Garrett reportedly has not completed the traditional task of meeting with every single player for their “exit interviews.” And it appears his ‘exit” might not occur until after those “exits” do.

NFL Network's Jane Slater offers up that nugget and it appears the Dallas Cowboys plan to allow the coach all the time needs to say "goodbye'' - which, by the way, is exactly what he did in many of his one-on-on sessions inside The Star on Monday and Tuesday.

Even so, the process is now gravitating toward foolishness.

"I understand 'Jerry Time,''' one long-time NFL exec with detailed knowledge of how Cowboys owner Jerry Jones works only at his pace. "But this is beyond dumb.''

The delay in the dismissal, I still believe, is all about how Jerry Jones functions as this organization's pater familias.

Jerry is the granddad to the players and to many employees. Jerry is the father to Cowboys staffers of Garrett's generation - especially when he's known someone, as he has Garrett, for almost the entirety of his 30-year reign atop "America's Team.''

So ... "Jerry Time.''

But the rest of the NFL clock keeps ticking. One group of Cowboys players is now on vacation together; it is hoped Garrett completed his "exit interviews'' with them, lest he and Jerry agree to fly the coach to "the desert'' for more sessions.

There is talk of the Jones family and Garrett conducting a third meeting this week on Thursday ... but I'm not completely certain everybody involved is even in town at this moment. 

There is also speculation that Jerry is having "Seller's Remorse'' on the plan to dismiss Garrett. Because Jerry is Jerry, that remote possibility deserves mention. And we reported  on Thursday morning, there is the rumor that Garrett might take a prominent job in the front office.

One Cowboys staffer said that's "fake news,'' maybe in part because Garrett moving upstairs (and "Failing Up'') wouldn't work with the respected Will McClay already up there.

Maybe this all won't bleed into the Cowboys coaching search because all of that homework (and maybe even a couple of "wink-winks''?) are already in place. Indeed, it sure has been quiet around Urban Meyer and Lincoln Riley lately, no?

So for now, "The Long Goodbye'' gets longer because of additional meetings with the Joneses ... and because somehow, other meetings are allowed to drag on.

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Mike Fisher
MIKE FISHER

Mike Fisher - as a newspaper beat writer and columnist and on radio and TV, where he is an Emmy winner - has covered the NFL since 1983 and the Dallas Cowboys since 1990, is the author of two best-selling books on the Cowboys.

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