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The Cowboys are three games into their season. The last two have been embarrassing losses at home where players’ effort has been a major storyline.
And the cracks are already starting to show.
Head coach Mike McCarthy got downright testy with one of the reporters in the media pool during his Monday press conference. The exchange spotlighted just how frustrated everyone is around The Star after a 28-25 loss to Baltimore dropped the club to 1-2, the Cowboys’ worst start since 2020.
Several Cowboys players, including Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, Jourdan Lewis, and Dak Prescott have offered up their own takes on a current problem that seems to go beyond simple Xs and Os. But when Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Nick Harris asked the coach how he might address such concerns in an already short week of practice, McCarthy chose to get nasty and sarcastic.
“Pretty dramatic there, Nick,” McCarthy snapped from the podium.
“I tell you, you must practice that one,” he added before finishing with a showy grimace and an exaggerated “Geez…”
full interaction via the @dallascowboys YouTube channel
great and valid question from Nick that Mike didn’t seem to like pic.twitter.com/MFlLT4Ye4A
— Tom Downey (@WhatGoingDowney) September 23, 2024
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McCarthy frequently hints at his distaste with all the Q&A obligations that come with his job and occasionally bristles with media members over certain lines of questioning, but this seemed uncharacteristic.
McCarthy caught some flak in January 2023 after he appeared to shove a cameraman in the moments after the Cowboys’ 19-12 playoff loss to San Francisco. The videographer, from NBC 5 in Dallas said the stiff-arm to his camera lens wasn’t as forceful as it looked; McCarthy later met with him to apologize.
After his initial barb directed at Harris on Monday, McCarthy appeared to relent somewhat. But the rest of his response was a meandering word salad that didn’t include much of anything resembling an actual answer:
“Well, hey, Thursday’s schedule. I mean, that’s what we’re on. I mean, we didn’t win the game. So, I think that’s part of where we are. So, yeah. I think they do a good job of answering your questions. It’s emotional after the game, so I’m not ever going to referee emotion on the field or after a game.”
None of that answers Harris’s completely fair, respectful, and legitimate query about how the coaching staff works those kinds of big-ticket issues that the players are already bringing up into a short week of prep.
It wasn’t an inappropriate gotcha kind of ambush from Harris, who, until just a few weeks ago, was a team employee writing for dallascowboys.com, and it in no way warranted McCarthy treating it as such.
Several other reporters had already asked about various players’ comments and the team’s reaction. McCarthy explained that “What needed to be said has been said, and we’re on to the Giants,” but he declined to elaborate on what that meant, saying “This isn’t show-and-tell.”
The coach (not to mention his entire staff) is reportedly working this season with no contract in place for next year, so tensions will undoubtedly- and understandably- be high with every misstep the club makes on the field. But his calling out Harris in front of the rest of the media pool was an over-the-top response that seemed genuinely odd under the circumstances.
Is McCarthy feeling the pinch of a short week of practice for a divisional opponent? Sure. Is he frustrated by the team’s poor performance the past two weeks? Clearly. Would he prefer not to get questions about his own players complaining about basic things like effort and details and teammates doing their jobs? Absolutely. Has the pressure been turned up around the facility with a second straight loss? Apparently.
Well, the coach just changed the narrative. By impatiently biting the head off an experienced reporter doing his job and suggesting that his question was somehow over the line, McCarthy has ensured that people will also be talking about that now… in addition to trying to pinpoint what’s wrong with the Cowboys on the field.