It was a painful week for everyone involved with the Cowboys.
In trying to make Jason Garrett’s firing as respectful as possible, the team and coach instead became laughingstocks during an awkward week-long charade that finally ended on Sunday.
Cowboys Hall of Famer Troy Aikman, a close friend of Garrett’s, certainly noticed and “was disappointed on a lot of levels with the way it unfolded after the season ended.”
“He committed everything he had to the organization and to doing the best job that he could,” Aikman told Mike Doocy of Fox 4 in Dallas. “He made it a priority, and he committed himself. Breakups are always hard. We all understand that at whatever level that they occur, but I don’t know that after all that he gave and committed to this organization that he received the same in return.”
Garrett was in limbo for several days after Dallas’ season ended a disappointing 8-8. Then on Thursday night, ESPN.com reported that the Cowboys planned to move on from Garrett but there was no official word from owner Jerry Jones that Garrett had been fired. On Saturday, word leaked out the Cowboys were interviewing veteran coaches Mike McCarthy and Marvin Lewis to replace Garrett.
The most embarrassing report surfaced on Sunday when Fox Sports said the Cowboys had indeed told Garrett he was not coming back but that the nine-plus-year coach had refused to accept his fate. He was officially fired later that day.
“When the organization was unwilling, for whatever reasons, and I don’t know the backstories to it all, but when the organization was unwilling to come out publicly and say that, ‘We are seeking a new coach,’ and yet at the same time, reports are coming out that they’re interviewing potential new candidates for the head coaching position, that’s disappointing,” Aikman, the lead game analyst for Fox Sports, said.
“I think in a lot of ways it shines a light on some of the dysfunction, if you will, within the organization and kind of how they got to the point that they’re in now.”
Aikman, as he has throughout the end of the regular season, preached that the organization’s changes need to go beyond the head coach. Aikman has suggested that Jones needs to take a step back from speaking publicly about the team as frequently as he does.
“Am I confident that will happen? Unfortunately, I am not,” Aikman said. “If you are truly committed to winning and you can attract the greatest coaches there are then make a move to get him whoever they are…. Right now, I am just disappointed for a really good friend.”
