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Posted 01/16/2008 at 02:41 PM
While Tony Romo and Terrell Owens grab the media attention following the playoff loss shouldn’t the coaching staff of the Cowboys take some heat? During the two weeks off now-former Cowboys assistant head coach Tony Sparano certainly had to do some prep-work for his interview with the Miami Dolphins. Granted his ties to Bill Parcells gave him a big advantage in the process but his mind may have been elsewhere. Dallas offensive coordinator Jason Garrett was also busy with two interviews for the Baltimore Ravens opening, a position he is rumored to have been offered.
We’ve all had job interviews before. Assuming the interview is for a lucrative job that you really want (like an NFL head coaching position) it is not something you take lightly. Certainly both coaches spent a great deal of time preparing for the interviews, time which perhaps took away from some of the preparation for the game against the New York Giants. It’s hard to blame the men for taking that route as the positions are incredible opportunities for their careers and for their families. Perhaps Cowboys owner Jerry Jones should have spent more time worrying about what his coaches were doing and either locking them up with his team or forcing them to wait until after the playoffs. Instead it seems Jones was busy securing presumptuous NFC Championship tickets for his players.
The Cowboys may be wise to lock up Garrett immediately. Whether they keep him in his present role for another year with the assumption of taking over as head coach down the line or if they fire Wade Phillips now and hand the team over to Garrett. It has long been widely known that Garrett was going to be a hot commodity as a coaching candidate at some point as he is one of the bright young offensive minds in the game. Does Phillips deserve to be fired? Probably not but it was clear from the get-go that he was in a temporary role and was not the long-term future of the Cowboys. If Marty Schottenheimer can get fired after a 14-2 season and a playoff failure, certainly Phillips could be fired for a 13-3 season and a playoff failure. If Garrett goes to Baltimore, the immediate future looks dim for the Cowboys as it will be tough to get quality players and assistants to come to Dallas in an unstable situation.
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