It didn’t take long for the world of sports to react to Mike McCarthy’s 1980 football coach methods in the season debut of HBO Hard Knocks, which features the 2021 edition of the Dallas Cowboys.
Before I begin it is important to note that this article is not in any way intended to rip directly on the Dallas Cowboys organization, its players, the salt-loving Jerry Jones, or even its fans.
In case you missed it, Jerry Jones actually put salt on top of what looked like a sausage egg McMuffin.
Now to be frank the Cowboys are playing in the weakest division in football and certainly appear to have enough talent on both sides of the ball to win their division. But let’s face it, Aaron Rodgers was correct about McCarthy.
“Last year was hard. No excuse,” McCarthy said. “Every year you have adversity that you go through as a football team. Last year we were definitely on the high end. Anytime you have adversity, negativity, those are all great experiences you can build off. We will be better from that. I am convinced of that.”
This was just one of a variety of completely standard things McCarthy said during the first episode of Hard Knocks. Sometimes it’s not what you say, but how you say it, and judging by the reaction of the players in the room, they have already tuned out McCarthy.
Is McCarthy Using Scriptwriters to Write His Speaches?
At times it was like McCarthy had spent the evening before in front of a mirror rehearsing his speeches. Since the Cowboys are holding training camp just 70 miles out of Hollywood, was McCarthy taping into the strengths of an out-of-work scriptwriter from Friday Night Lights?
“We’ve got a lot to clean up; that’s for sure,” said, McCarthy. I’m willing to bet that’s an expression Packers know all too well.
McCarthy also created something he calls mojo moments which comes from “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.” To be fair to McCarthy all coaches tend to do things like mojo moments, the difference is the Cowboy players seemed to not be motivated in any way by his attempt to create urgency on the practice field. Once again they all tunned him out.
But my favorite McCarthy coaching moment came when he pointed out to the entire team that everyone comes from somewhere. Look this is the NFL, not second grade Mike.
Despite McCarthy, being McCarthy, you have to give it to the Cowboys organization because they certainly have enough firepower on paper to make a playoff run. That is if Dak Prescott can stay healthy.
