In his first 17 seasons as an NFL Head Coach, Mike McCarthy won 8 division titles, a Maxwell Club Coach of the Year Award and a Super Bowl trophy. But at 3-6, year 18 has proven to be much more difficult. An already hot seat went up a few more degrees last Sunday following a 34-6 home defeat to the rival Philadelphia Eagles when star pass rusher Micah Parsons said this when asked what he would tell people about McCarthy’s future with the team:
"That's above my pay grade, if Mike's coach again next year," Parsons said. "All coaching aside, Mike can leave and go where he wants to. Guys I kind of feel bad for is guys like Zack Martin and guys who might be on their last year, on their way out, because that's who I wanted to hold the trophy for. You want to win games and do great things with those type of legends who put in more time and work than Mike McCarthy ever did. So, those are the kind of guys that I have so much sympathy and hurt for."
On this week’s edition of Throwbacks, former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Matt Leinart suggested that public comments like the ones Parsons made aren’t productive when it comes to altering a team’s downward trajectory.
“(Micah Parsons) saying that does nothing but jeopardize the locker room and the team. It does nothing but have people like us in media talking about it in a negative light. There's nothing positive about it.”
Leinart acknowledged that tension within a team isn’t necessarily a rare occurrence, but there is a proper method of handling it, a method which Parsons diverted from.
“If you've got a problem, you go talk to that person and you handle it that way,” Leinart said. “Because the minute you start opening this up to public and to the media, it's a feeding frenzy. And that's what it is right now.”
Prior to co-hosting Throwbacks alongside former Entourage star Jerry Ferrara, Leinart spent 7 years in the NFL. His experience in those locker rooms leads him to believe that things behind the scenes may be even worse for the Cowboys than we think.
“I've been in locker rooms where... you start to finger point a little bit, and I'll tell you what, Jerry, it's not good. Like, that team is about to get blown up.”
Dallas’ hopes of turning their season around get no easier in the short term as they face the Houston Texans on Monday Night Football followed by a Week 12 clash in the nation’s capital against the rival Washington Commanders.
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