NFL Network reporter Jane Slater joined the K&C Masterpiece in the wake of the news that Mike McCarthy won't return to coach the Dallas Cowboys in 2025. She breaks down why contract talks broke down, who the team will be interested in to replace McCarthy, if the Cowboys are viewed as a cheap organization cross the league, and more.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00I would just say I was beginning to get a sense that this wasn't going to move forward
00:23with McCarthy and I don't have this confirmed yet, but my sense based on some of the conversations
00:29I've had is it doesn't sound like this was Jerry deciding that he no longer wanted Mike
00:36here.
00:37This might have been Mike saying, I'm going to move on.
00:44A lot of that, according to staffers that I've spoken with, had to do with this contract
00:48sticking point.
00:49He was already frustrated and he's done this on the record, off the record, Mike, with
00:56us reporters and even up at the podium with fans, frustrated about how he and his staff
01:01went into this year with expiring contracts.
01:06I think they felt like that limited them, that it was tough on their families.
01:10You know, as I've gotten a little bit longer in the tooth, even with this job, you get
01:13to know the families and it is hard, but I think everybody, as Jerry said, smallest violin
01:19in the room, everyone knows that that's part of the business, but I think what a lot of
01:25people don't have the appetite for is, all right, the season came to an end.
01:29They were already on expiring contracts.
01:32Should this decision, and if you were going to bring him back, at least some parameters
01:37already be in place, and that didn't seem to be the case.
01:40I mean, the way it was characterized to me, these conversations with Mike in the last
01:45week weren't about hard numbers or links.
01:48It was really just about the end of the season, how things could have gone, and I think that
01:53started to rub him a different type of way.
02:00And so I think when he ultimately came down here and then, you know, he was denied permission
02:04to interview for the Barrett's job, I think there was some frustration.
02:08Now I will also say when I first heard about the Barrett's job, I thought this is just
02:13a pulley to get his, you know, to sort of like put him in the water.
02:18But I was told by both sides on this that the interest in Mike was real in Chicago.