FRISCO, Texas — Everything seemed ordinary at first for Brian Schottenheimer on Monday.
Schottenheimer, who was previously the Dallas Cowboys’ offensive coordinator under head coach Mike McCarthy, was flanked by owner Jerry and Stephen Jones and and as he sat down at the Star, the Cowboys’ headquarters, to be officially introduced as the team’s new head coach.
That was about the only ordinary thing that happened during a news conference that lasted well over an hour, with most of the speaking being done by team owner Jerry Jones rather than Schottenheimer — the alleged focus of it.
In terms of Schottenheimer’s approach to the news conference, he kept it basic. He laid out his broad plans for the Cowboys’ offense, gave appreciation to quarterback Dak Prescott, who was in attendance with a handful of his teammates, and made sure to mention his late father Marty, who was a longtime head coach in the NFL.
It was standard from a head coaching perspective: We’re going to be multiple, play with tempo, marry the run and pass.
Nothing that hasn’t been said a million times before by just about every single coach who has taken a head coaching job.
However, the news conference very quickly became about Jerry Jones, most notably about how defensive he was over the hiring of Schottenheimer.
The first question was a simple inquiry on why he hired Schottenheimer following the expiration of McCarthy’s contract, which led to an emotional, 10-minute diatribe that was only vaguely related to Jerry’s long history of hiring successful head coaches for the Cowboys.
“In the almost 35 years that I’ve been involved with the Dallas Cowboys, I’ve only missed one Senior Bowl,” Jones said. “Thirty-five years. And I think I missed one [NFL scouting] combine, in 35 years. At the NFL, over the last four or five years, we want to come in a day early so that we can visit with prospective coaches for the future of my team and any other teams. In 35 years I don’t think I’ve ever visited with a coach, but what in my heart and mind I wasn’t having an interview. I don’t think I’ve ever had a coach visit with me that wasn’t prospectively thinking maybe someday our paths might cross … I’ve been around a lot of coaches. As a matter of fact I wanted to be a coach. Except I wanted to live better than I thought coaches lived.”
OK? That’s largely irrelevant to the question and situation at hand, but Jerry was eventually able to corral himself into talking about Barry Switzer, Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson — great, Super Bowl-winning coaches from the past. Jones eventually did steer the conversation back to Schottenheimer, but that came with an odd backhanded compliment where he said that this hire was incredibly risky because Schottenheimer has mostly been a lifelong coordinator. The general reaction from the Cowboys’ fan base has been one of disgust due to Schottenheimer’s mixed bag of results in the past, and Jones didn’t do much to quell those concerns, although he did try in his own specific way.
“Our fans have been very patient. Very patient,” Jones said about the Cowboys’ recent blunders. “I want to tell them how appreciative I am of their support and their interest in the Dallas Cowboys. Now there’s a whole bunch of those fans who look because they want to see me grovel. But to those fans who have been with us, this decision to bring Schotty in is risky. It’s not a Hail Mary at all. At all in any way. But it’s founded over some very unique circumstances. I know how much our fans are into the Dallas Cowboys. And for me to be into it is no solace at all. We’re interested, they’re interested, I’m interested in getting into those playoffs and win it.”
As the news conference went on, it became much more clear that this move was potentially as much about Jones’ ego than actually doing the best thing for the Cowboys — but that may not necessarily be a new development for people who follow this franchise. It should be said that the NFL is fairly random and it may not matter what people think about Schottenheimer coming into this job. He has the support of his owner, his quarterback and a handful of players on the team he has already built relationships with.
The work starts now for the Cowboys and their new head coach, but as today showed, this is still the Jerry Jones show as long as he’s still breathing. For better or for worse.
