Stay true to your convictions. That’s a lesson most learn from an early age, and Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy is sticking to his in the middle of what is arguably his worst stretch since becoming head coach of America’s Team.

With the Cowboys one of the worst teams in football over the last month, McCarthy’s unit is struggling on both sides of the ball, and coupled with injuries to key players, it feels like a battle he’s losing.

But that doesn’t mean McCarthy is about to throw out everything he’s learned throughout his career. He’s sticking to what he knows and isn’t about to make big changes from a personal standpoint.

“I think it confirms what I believe in and what I’ve done, that’s what adversity has been in my personal experience,” McCarthy said on being consistent emotionally during the losing streak. “I’m not a big fan of drama; that personality is something that I’ve had to learn as a coach to engage with and work with.

“So I think like anything in life, it’s important when you do go through times, regardless what they are professionally, you go back to who you are, you should stick to who you are. I’m never going to try to be somebody else.”

McCarthy’s words are wise: Stick to what helped get you here.

That is easy in theory, but when you have the entire NFL world coming after you, that can’t be easy. Plus, we haven’t even added in “Big Mike’s” lame-duck job status for the 2024 season yet, either.

Oh, and “drama”? The coach makes a salient point about having to over the years learn how to deal with it … with being involved with Jerry Jones’ traveling Cowboys Circus maybe the biggest “drama” test of all.

There’s no denying that the Cowboys and McCarthy are going through a tough time right now, with barbs coming from every angle and aimed squarely at the heart, which makes sticking to your convictions about how you coach and prepare hard, especially when every national sports show has you the topic of conversion daily.

But with McCarthy being “Pittsburgh tough,” if this ship is going down, he’s making sure it’s going down his way, and regardless of what you think about him as a coach, at least he’s staying true to himself.