One of the biggest plays of the Dallas Cowboys season was a blocked punt. Already this offseason, it’s their blocked permission that has the NFL buzzing.
With his contract officially expiring Wednesday, the Chicago Bears asked the Cowboys to interview Mike McCarthy for their head coach opening. After last Sunday’s season-ending loss, owner Jerry Jones seemed perturbed by the situation.
“Then I would say go talk. I really would,” Jones said. “That’s not healthy to have somebody around that wants to be someplace else.”
Tuesday Jones denied the Bears’ request, leaving Chicago to move on to an interview with former Seattle Seahawks’ coach Pete Carroll and setting Jones’ ablaze. Despite the Cowboys having an exclusive negotiating window with McCarthy through Jan. 14, ESPN’s Get Up! took turns Wednesday destroying a Jones strategy they called “unfair,” “unnecessary” and “mean-spirited.”
The panel had an assortment of criticisms of Jones’ methods and madness:
*Mike Greenberg: “This is just not right. There is an agreement in the NFL and you never hold a person back from getting an opportunity. Every day – every hour – that goes by, McCarthy’s chances of getting a job somewhere else diminish. It isn’t right on the part of Jerry Jones. This is something he is doing unto Mike McCarthy that really seems unfair and is beneath what the owner of an NFL team should do. Jerry’s doing this because he wants to have his cake and eat it too … just because he can.”
*Jeff Saturday: “It’s ridiculous and mean-spirited. If you don’t want him, tell him you don’t want him and move on. It makes no sense. When he does things this way it’s disingenuous to say we’re trying to win as an organization.”
*Domonique Foxworth: “He’s holding the entire coaching staff hostage. It’s unfair and unnecessary. And it doesn’t even help your team.”
*Andrew Hawkins: “If he doesn’t give keep Mike McCarthy and give him a new contract, we should scorch Earth on this show. It’s wrong to keep him in limbo even if you’re going to re-sign him. It better be a line in the sand that he’s your coach.”
