DALLAS — Ouch.
Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman gave Cowboys Nation a hard-to-swallow pill when speaking about the team he played 12 years for. To his credit, Aikman, who hung three Super Bowl banners in Dallas, has never been one to sugar-coat things when talking about the state of the Cowboys.
When the news broke that the Cowboys were moving on from Mike McCarthy after a 7-10 season, the attention quickly turned to “who will be next?” As the most valuable sports franchise in the world for nearly a decade straight, it’s understandable why ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt described the head coaching vacancy as “coveted as any.”
In response, Aikman offered a differing – and quite honestly a humbling – reality check.
“Well, I thought Mike McCarthy would be the head coach, so this is a bit of a surprise for me today that he’s not going to be,” Aikman said on “Monday Night Countdown” pregame on ESPN. “It suggests that there’s not a real plan. The fact that they haven’t had the opportunity to interview a Ben Johnson and some of these others, Aaron Glenn. … Kellen Moore being a candidate seems logical to me: a guy who has familiarity with the building. He worked obviously with the Cowboys and with Jerry Jones. In fact when Mike McCarthy got the job, it was told to Mike that Kellen would be the offensive coordinator, so that’s how much the Jones family thinks of him. Beyond that, it’s hard to imagine. As as a coveted job, I don’t know that that’s accurate. I do think the Cowboys are a high-profile team, and whoever is head coach of that team is certainly going to draw a lot of attention. I think most football people that take over as head coach want to do it on their terms. That’s hard to do.”
Who will be the Dallas Cowboys next head coach?
There has been a lot of social media buzz around Colorado coach Deion Sanders, but we listed out the top names on the market here.
WFAA Sports Anchor Joe Trahan and WFAA Cowboys Insider Ed Werder discussed the topic here: