Getty Jerry Jones
An incensed Jerry Jones let loose on the nameless Dallas Cowboys players who reportedly ripped the coaching staff — “very, very, very irresponsible” players, according to the furious owner/general manager.
“The criticism is that our guys might not know what they’re doing out there and you put one of those innuendos,” Jones said Friday on 105.3 The Fan. “It no more reflects the thinking of our players, than it reflects the thinking of something going on in the Kremlin. It is just absolutely irrelevant, and very very very irresponsible, relative to these times.”
Under the veil of anonymity, following an initial agreement to keep grievances in-house, multiple players trashed their superiors in comments made to NFL Network’s Jane Slater on Tuesday, the day after Dallas’ 38-10 embarrassing home loss to Arizona.
“Totally unprepared. They don’t teach. They don’t have any sense of adjusting on the fly,” one player conveyed to Slater.
“They just aren’t good at their jobs,” another said.
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McCarthy’s Response
Those same gum-flappers, whoever they are, stood at attention Wednesday morning as head coach Mike McCarthy addressed the fractious locker room and spun front-page news into what he dubbed a “teachable moment” for his spiraling 2-4 squad.
“The anonymous is something I think we all don’t want to recognize,” McCarthy told reporters, via USA Today. “But I’ll just say this: Any time, especially this year of all years, being our first year together, I think it is important to recognize anything and everything for a teachable moment.
“So any time I have a chance to teach and make it clear what our expectation is, always moving that needle toward winning, that’s my approach.”
Slater, for obvious reasons, never disclosed which players said what, nor whether they were remarking on Dallas’ amputated offense or moribund defense. Regardless, McCarthy conveyed, all parties involved — staff included — must be held accountable for unacceptable on-field play. And should a future discrepancy arise, he emphasized, “handle things as men.”
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Jerry Continues Tangent
Jones, in no mood to worry about optics, took things a step further. While defending McCarthy’s ability and accomplishments, the Cowboys’ ever-present czar blasted the “credibility” of those disenchanted.
“Don’t think that Mike McCarthy isn’t a big boy that has big shoulders, and can’t handle anything they want to throw at him,” Jones said. “He’s been to school on that. That’s one of the reasons I wanted him here, is because it hasn’t just been success for him. He’s dealt with both of those imposters… The success imposter, and the failure imposter, and he’s done well with it.”
“It doesn’t add to anything. It doesn’t make me do anything other than almost smirk. Do you think it has any credibility? Think about it. Do you really think it has any credibility?” Jones continued. “Do you actually think that those words could come out of your mouth, and you can’t say who gave you gave you the information has any credibility? Think about it. It had none.”
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Follow Zack Kelberman on Twitter: @KelbermanNFL