Jerry Jones is 81 years old, and he hasn’t won a Super Bowl in 28 years.
“I’m 80 years old. I would like results now,’’ Leon Hess said when he hired Wealthy Kotite to exchange Pete Carroll in 1995.
Hess was 82 years old when he hired Bill Parcells to get him those results, and died 4 months after Parcells got the Jets to the AFC Championship game in Denver following the 1998 season.
Jones has recycled his fair proportion of head coaches — including Parcells — since Barry Switzer won Super Bowl XXX with Jimmy Johnson’s players, and now there may be an awesome white shark circling NFL waters, including off Dallas.
“I’m running out of Combines,” Jones said in Indianapolis, and that was five years ago.
When Cowboys host the Packers in Sunday’s wild-card round game, coach Mike McCarthy should know Jones well enough by now to know that he’d higher not lose to the team he coached to the Super Bowl XLV championship with Aaron Rodgers.
Because Bill Belichick — former Patriots coach Bill Belichick — is the sort of big fish that any owner should wish to reel in.
McCarthy has been Cowboys coach for 4 seasons, and this one brought an NFC East title and a 3rd consecutive 12-5 record. And the pressure inherent in coaching an America’s Team with great expectations and aspirations.
McCarthy higher not lose this game.
He has won just one playoff game as Cowboys coach and hasn’t made it to the conference championship game. But now he has Dak Prescott playing at an MVP level that might earn him a $60 million annual salary extension that will eclipse Joe Burrow’s $55M.
Prescott, along with his 2-4 playoff record will likely be under immense pressure of his own to play big in an enormous game, and get McCarthy and the Cowboys to the divisional round — and beyond, with possible showdowns against the Eagles and 49ers looming.
“This team,” Jones said following a rout of the Commanders on Thanksgiving Day, “is actually able to winning the entire thing.”
Prescott’s (36 touchdowns, nine interceptions this season) vow to chop down on his league-leading 15 interceptions in 2022 has guaranteed his future as America’s Team’s franchise quarterback. He has been playing pitch and catch with receiver CeeDee Lamb. McCarthy answered his own critics, who were skeptical about him taking up play-calling duties this season.
All well and good.
McCarthy higher not lose this game.
Jones was so certain the Cowboys would beat the Giants within the 2007 divisional round that he gifted players two tickets for family and friends for what would have been a house NFC Championship game.
“How we managed to not get a Super Bowl with Tony Romo as our quarterback will all the time probably be my best disappointment,” Jones said once.
A one-and-done exit at home now because the No. 2 seed? That may challenge his best disappointment.
“I actually have a ton of respect for Jerry and Stephen [Jones, son and team executive], and the best way they run the organization down there,” Belichick said before a Week 4, blowout loss to the Cowboys, 38-3. “They’ve had a long time of success.”
But a long time without the last word success. Jones didn’t hire McCarthy to succeed in the playoffs. He hired him to win a Super Bowl. He has a quarterback and a team fully able to winning one.
Should the Cowboys exit with a humiliating whimper to Jordan Love, McCarthy could pay the last word price. If he does, Jones could turn to defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who’s a hot commodity again.
The Chargers, largely due to Justin Herbert, are the present favorites to rent Belichick. Arthur Blank might consider giving Belichick a blank check to resurrect the Falcons. The Commanders, with the second-overall pick within the draft, could be in play. Possibly Belichick wouldn’t desire a partnership with Jones, or vice versa.
But when McCarthy is upset on this spot by the Packers, what if?
Belichick might enjoy coaching a team that’s built to win. He might enjoy coaching Micah Parsons almost as much as he enjoyed coaching Lawrence Taylor.
What if considered one of Belichick’s best friends, newest Cowboys Ring of Honor member Jimmy Johnson, convinced him?
Could Belichick and Jones work harmoniously together? Inconceivable to predict, but Parcells and Jones mostly did for 4 years.
McCarthy, after all, could make any potential coaching change by Jones moot. It won’t be a problem at game time 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. But … could it’s by 7:30? But … what if McCarthy needs one other Super Bowl championship as much as Jones does?