Jerry Jones of the Cowboys Makes a Crude Remark About Fireing Mike McCarthy

Six weeks into the NFL season, 1/32nd of the coaches have already lost their jobs. The Cowboys’ head coach, Mike McCarthy, was not the one. And, despite a rough 3-3 start to the season, which included two blowout defeats at home and another close call at home, McCarthy does not look to be the next in line. Is Doug Pederson in Jacksonville? Probably. Is Nick Sirianni in Philadelphia? He’s almost making it easy for Eagles executives to terminate him.

But the Cowboys have McCarthy as their man. And that’s not going to change.

After Sunday’s drubbing at the hands of the Lions—a 47-9 eyesore—owner and general manager Jerry Jones was asked about McCarthy’s status, and quickly shot down the idea of saving this season with a coaching change. He was asked about it again during his weekly radio appearance on 105.7 The Fan in Dallas

He was blunt in his approach to McCarthy: “I won’t be making any others [coaching changes] during the season.”

Cowboys Made 1 In-Season Coaching Change Under Jerry Jones

While in-season coaching changes have helped other struggling organizations in the past, Jones has one experience of having changed coaches in his time as Cowboys owner, and he did not like how things turned out much.

The change came in 2010, after the Cowboys had gone 11-5 the previous year under Wade Phillips. But they started 1-7 that year, as Tony Romo struggled with injury and was not very effective when he was healthy. After firing Phillips and bringing on Jason Garrett, the Cowboys went 5-3.

Cowboys Made 1 In-Season Coaching Change Under Jerry Jones

While in-season coaching changes have helped other struggling organizations in the past, Jones has one experience of having changed coaches in his time as Cowboys owner, and he did not like how things turned out much.

The change came in 2010, after the Cowboys had gone 11-5 the previous year under Wade Phillips. But they started 1-7 that year, as Tony Romo struggled with injury and was not very effective when he was healthy. After firing Phillips and bringing on Jason Garrett, the Cowboys went 5-3.

That does not matter as much to Jones, though, as the fact that Phillips went on, five years later, to be the defensive coordinator in Denver, helping the Broncos to a Super Bowl championship.

“They usually are ineffective,” Jones said, “At that particular time [with Phillips], I did think it was the thing to do. I think it did produce a positive effect, but we’ll never know. All Wade did was move over to Denver — he didn’t become the head coach, he became the defensive coordinator — and that was one of the few times in my 35 years in the NFL that I heard throughout the league that the one coach was responsible for them having the team, and that was Wade Phillips running the defense for Denver when they won the Super Bowl.

“Now that was the coach I’d let go out of here just a few years earlier. So, so much for knee jerking on 1-7.”

Mike McCarthy a Lame-Duck Coach

All that might make sense, of course, if Jones had confidence in McCarthy. If the sentiment is that the Cowboys should not have let Phillips go after the 1-7 start, because he helped a team to a championship five years later, then being unwilling to make a move on McCarthy now much mean that the Cowboys are committed to McCarthy, long-term.

And yet, he is in the final year of his contract, and the Cowboys have made no move to extend him. Jones is letting McCarthy twist in the wind, effectively a lame duck without a new deal.

McCarthy addressed his contract status on Monday.

“I think it’s just part of the business,” McCarthy said, via Todd Archer of ESPN. “When people ask me about really anything with the team, part of working here, it’s part of the business.”

Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.